Vital Spirit
by Star-Gamer
Summary: Investigating the P2 Plasma Laboratory was supposed to be simple and now Ash, Iris and Cilan's Pokémon, having experienced quite an unusual event, must keep it secret from their Trainers. It doesn't matter to Oshawott either way though. The only thing he wants is to be with a certain Pokémon... A brave kid collaboration
1. Plasma Investigation

**Hey there, fellow readers! What you are about to read are not strictly my ideas; they belong to brave kid although I shall, of course, be adding my own from time to time and developing the story as I see fit. Consider me a ghost-writer in this instance. So let us see how it develops, eh? Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Plasma Investigation**

Team Plasma. The P2 Laboratory. What monstrous things had perhaps taken place here? For they had assured the public that they were Pokémon Liberators but in reality… far more unscrupulous matters had taken place. The very walls seemed to hold dark secrets. In any case, the Pokémon that they were meant to have 'freed' did not seem to make their way back to the forests or the mountains or the seas. Pokémon that were perfectly happy with their lives forcibly separated from their Trainers and families… it didn't bear thinking about for a group of Pokémon who travelled great distances with their Trainers and had seen extraordinary things.

That is why when Pikachu, cautiously approaching the dilapidated laboratory, looked up towards the barbed wire fencing and the rusting padlock, hanging on its hinges from the main entrance, felt his fur suddenly bristle and stand up on end. A bolt of lightning illuminated the scenery before them and again, reinforced the elements of danger and past atrocities. Even Oshawott, who with the teeming rain and occasional rumble of thunder, should have been in his natural element by being soaked to the skin, trembled on the spot.

Team Plasma wasn't a new entity to him; having previously lived his life at Professor Juniper's Lab had allowed him to pick up on things that the other Pokémon were unaware of; such things that he did not wish to impart to his friends. Nevertheless, Oshawott shook himself of the excess water and allowed himself to approach the entrance first even though he could hear his Trainer warning him to be careful. But of course, he was always careful, he knew that surely.

Oshawott took his scalchop and prepared to slash at the aged lock. To break the item in one would not only look impressive and therefore boost his confidence but it would also impress a certain someone else. Whenever his thoughts strayed to her however, he seemed to lose all focus and descend into an almost dream-like state. His body trembled and his heart fluttered.

**"~Oshawott…~"** he murmured to himself.

"Oshawott?" said Ash.

Oshawott snapped himself out of his reverie, hearing his Trainer's voice and saw that everyone was waiting for him to do the thing that he had volunteered for. He blushed and urged himself to concentrate. There was no time like the present after all. Oshawott's scalchop glowed with energy and he geared himself to leap up in the air and pull off a powerful attack.

"Hey boonie kid! Just what do you think you're doing here?"

Oshawott, completely alarmed, cried out loud and instead of striking the padlock, he ended up slamming himself against the titanium doors instead. His razor-sharp shell flew skywards and landed at the intruder's feet. Oshawott suddenly felt his arm throb painfully. Angry, he turned to see who it was. Pikachu had to stop him from attacking both the Trainer and the Pokémon that stood beside him.

"Trip!" Ash yelled. "Where did you come from? And what are you doing here?" His companions, Iris and Cilan also voiced similar questions, mainly on the lines of (from Iris anyway), "Why did you have to go and scare us like that?!"

Oshawott still had to be restrained by Pikachu when Trip stood there and laughed, as if this was all a game. (Pikachu had that sinking feeling that he was going to have restrain Oshawott more than usual in the future.) His Pokémon, Servine, gave Oshawott a self-assured smirk. Clearly, Servine still felt that he had got the better deal and that he was chosen over Oshawott because Oshawott was really rather inferior. And Oshawott wasn't chosen by a Trainer at the lab; it was only because he had ran away to catch up with Ash that he was chosen at all.

**"~Osha...~"** he muttered under his breath.

"I've come to do an errand for Professor Juniper," he explained. "She contacted me with the Xtransreceiver; a device that you still haven't got hold of since Kanto is way behind in the times." Ash, just like his Pokémon, tried to keep his rising anger in check. "Professor Juniper has entrusted me to check out this abandoned Plasma Laboratory in case it holds any dangers to the wild Pokémon around here or if there are still members of Team Plasma working inside it. So what have you come for?"

"Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny have also expressed similar concerns that you mention, Trip," said Cilan calmly. "As experienced trainers, they felt that we would be able to take care of matters ourselves since the regular police are busy tracking down Plasma members and of course, Nurse Joy has to deal with sick Pokémon. In any case, it's better to inspect this place as a group."

"Cilan's right," said Iris. "Whatever is in there, it could be dangerous! And I don't want Axew exposed to anything like that or any other Pokémon." The Dragon Pokémon voiced his agreement and then he hid from the rain that was still pelting down.

"Please," Trip sighed. "Team Plasma abandoned this place a month ago according to the sources in town. What reason could there be for any members to stay behind? And the experiments that they were talking about? That was just baloney made up to scare kids. Their main objective is to free Pokémon after all since they are still active. And if there were any Plasma members inside here that needed dealing with, I could take them on easily. Alone."

"Well, for someone who doesn't know half of what's going on, you sure seem to be confident!" Ash snapped. "Come on, Trip. There's no harm in boosting our numbers and I'm pretty sure that you're as concerned about protecting our Pokémon as we are, even though our Pokémon are pretty strong!"

"Really?" said Trip disinterestedly. "Are your Pokémon really that strong? I see that you still haven't evolved your Oshawott." He indicated the Water-Type with the same disinterest as before infuriating Oshawott. "Why do most of your Pokémon, like your Oshawott, never seem to get past the first evolutionary stage? That's just lazy. I'm glad I chose Servine."

"If Oshawott doesn't want to evolve then that's perfectly fine by me!" Ash said. "It's down to our Pokémon whether they want to evolve or not." Cilan and Iris remained silent; they too had Pokémon that had not evolved and were in no rush to do so. "And in case you hadn't noticed," Ash continued. "Oshawott was just going to let us into the building before you interrupted us!"

Oshawott folded his arms and glared at Servine. **"~Osha~Osha~Oshawott.~**" He did not get much of a response in return.

_Would you have got us in? I bet not! You wouldn't have volunteered, would you? No, you would have left some poor sap to do the job instead!_

Trip gave another customary sigh. "Ash," he said. "Have you ever heard of the concept of using a key?"

"Where did you get that from?" asked Ash suddenly.

"Who do you think?" said Trip with another sigh.

Before Trip could take another step forwards, Oshawott rushed before him, seeing that his beloved scalchop was either going to be stood on or kicked aside with little ceremony. An Oshawott only allowed those that it truly trusted or cared for to touch its scalchop and obviously, Trip did not fit either bill. Oshawott shot the Trainer who had grievously insulted him on a number of occasions a piercing glare before picking up his scalchop. However, instead of reattaching it to himself, Oshawott was determined to show Trip that he was not some weak Pokémon and resumed his previously interrupted task. They all heard a loud _crack _and a _clang._

_What do you think of that, then?_ Oshawott thought as if he could somehow project his thoughts to his rival. **"~Oshawott?~"**

_Show-off, _thought Servine. **"~Ser…vine~"**

"Well, well, well," said Trip as Oshawott cleaved the padlock into two perfect halves. "I suppose that is slightly impressive. Maybe you should do that more often; try to look impressive that is. Then I wouldn't be mistaken about you. But… I could have just used this key to get us in."

"Do you have to be like that all of the time?" Iris yelled. "It is getting really annoying! You're not exactly the most impressive person yourself. You are such a little kid!" This was one of those times in which Ash appreciated her fury. "That thing looks rusty anyway so I bet that you couldn't have gotten the doors open if you tried. Just as well we're here isn't it?"

"Thanks, Oshawott," said Ash. "I thought that was great. Just look at how much stronger you're getting now."

Oshawott gave a small bow and went to reattach his scalchop. He wanted to give Servine a self-satisfied smirk but he was confused when he saw the Servine grin at him rather smugly. It was then that he suddenly noticed with great alarm that his beloved shell had sustained major damage and that there was now a large crack running through the middle of it.

"Oh, no!" Ash cried as soon as he noticed the cause of his Pokémon's sudden distress. "That's not going to help at all! I didn't know that they could get damaged. Hey, Oshawott, don't worry," he said seeing how upset Oshawott looked. "I'm sure that it will heal in next to no time… won't it Cilan?"

"Hmm," Cilan pondered. "Well, Ash, Oshawott's scalchop is made of keratin so it should grow back on its own although I would recommend not using Razor Shell for a while since that would increase the chances of it shattering entirely and it would take far longer to re-grow an entire shell than to heal a crack. In fact, it would be better to avoid using it at all for some time."

"Shame," said Trip as he led the way inside along with his Servine. "I'd have thought that Oshawott's weapon would have been a lot tougher by now what with all of your training but I guess not. What goes for the Pokémon goes for the trainer too. I suppose we better get this over with anyway haven't we, Servine?"

"Don't Oshawott," said Ash, lightly touching his Pokémon. "He's not worth it. This is going to be fun, isn't it, Pikachu?" he said to himself and his Pokémon. Pikachu gave a solemn nod while Oshawott strode on ahead; resolutely showing that he wasn't going to go back into his Poké Ball just yet. He tried not to let his distress show not only over the unexpected damage but that he was horribly afraid of Team Plasma and anything associated with them. But that was a story for another time.

At least, when they all got inside, they were able to dry off a little, sheltered at last from the torrential weather. Apart from the water that dripped from their clothes, there was no other discernible sound in the building. Pikachu and Oshawott shook themselves dry only to get wet again when Servine decided to shake himself dry. Cilan's Pansage decided to give the pair a leaf each off its tuft to alleviate any tiredness and the possibilities of ill effects. Being a generous Pokémon, Pansage offered Servine one as well but was politely refused.

"OK," said Ash. "Does anybody have a map? I doubt there'll be signposts all over for the place for us."

"Look, there's a map on the wall," Cilan remarked. "If I can trace it onto my Town Map device, then we shouldn't have too many problems making our way around here. I'm afraid it's going to take quite some time though before we finish for the night."

Ash groaned. It would have been far easier if Trip had turned up earlier or later than he did. Oshawott wasn't amused either since it looked like Servine was going to stay out for the entirety of this escapade as well.

"Let's get this over with then…" Ash muttered.

* * *

"Get on a move on, everybody, Professor Juniper wants this done today not tomorrow or next week!"

"Hey, who asked you to come along anyway?" Ash snapped.

"Er, Professor Juniper did," said Trip with a sigh. "I already told you that. Does Kanto have people who actually have brains? Talk about the boonies…"

"Will you two stop arguing?!" Iris shrieked. Her Dragon partner Axew jumped onto her shoulder as a show of defence. "This job isn't going to get done any faster by yelling at each other. None of us want to be here so let's just get whatever it is that needs doing done."

"She's right," said Cilan, in his usual role as a peacekeeper. "Whatever Team Plasma got up to here, I think our Pokémon can still sense it and it's making them very uneasy." It was true. Axew had been hiding in Iris's hair most of the time and Pikachu kept a painful grip on Ash's shoulder as if that was the only safe haven around. Oshawott was out of his Poké Ball still as was his wont to do and in any case, he wanted to keep a close eye on that cocky Servine that Trip had. Even in this dismal place, Servine displayed astounding confidence. Oshawott shook his head; could they be so blind to the possible dangers ahead of them?

"So, I wouldn't just rush into this," Cilan continued. His Pansage, who was also quite the peacekeeper, nodded in agreement. "We know that Team Plasma is a dangerous force to be reckoned with as we have come across them before. Just keep that in mind."

"Huh, well my Servine is perfectly fine," said Trip nonchalantly. "And isn't that what I've been saying in the first place? Since your Pokémon are so scared, we need to go through this base quickly don't we?"

He stroked the top of Servine's head and for some reason that Oshawott couldn't explain to himself, that only made him extremely angry. Maybe it was due to the fact that Servine had been chosen over him and that he had had to accept ages ago that Pikachu was Ash's number one partner. In any case, that Servine constantly irritated him with the sly looks and the snide remarks. And its Trainer wasn't much better.

**"~Servine~Servine**~" it said to him. **"~Servine~Vine!~"**

Oshawott didn't look around but he could hear the snickering. He was finding it difficult not to react. It was such a shame that he was at a type-disadvantage; maybe if he learned a Bug-Type move or something like that and then he could give him some payback. Of course, Servine was one up in the evolutionary stakes and constantly found amusement in Oshawott's lack of desire to evolve, as if it was some sort of mental illness. That was what he was doing now. Oshawott knew that he wasn't the only one who did not want to evolve. After all, Pikachu kept his distance from Thunderstones so that he wouldn't evolve and Snivy… well, if she wanted to evolve, she would have done so by now being stronger than he was. Oshawott breathed deeply; thinking about Snivy always calmed him down.

Until said thoughts were interrupted again by his rival that is. Oshawott slowly removed his cracked scalchop and practically dared for his rival to taunt him again.

"Man, this place is creepy," Ash remarked. He held Pikachu against his chest to reassure both himself and his Pokémon. "They're just as bad as Team Rocket, if not worse. At least Team Rocket's main plan has always been pretty clear: world domination. But these guys… just what do they hope to get by experimenting on Pokémon?"

"Who knows, Ash?" said Cilan. "At least we haven't seen much that's untoward. I would say that we have covered about three-quarters of this building by the way. I think it should only take us another hour or so to fully check this place out and then we can get out of here."

"Thank goodness!" Iris exclaimed. "Hey, Axew, I think we're going to be fine. Just a little bit longer now and then we can go back to the Pokémon Centre." Ash, meanwhile, inwardly groaned again. Another hour or so with Trip? Just why was it that in every region he visited, he had to have a rival who basically thought that he was better than everybody else?

This place really was dilapidated and creepy. Everywhere they looked, there were holes in the creaking floorboards and bare, cobwebbed wires hanging from the ceiling. The few light bulbs that were working tended to flicker and in some cases, water dripped from them and those drops were scalding hot as Oshawott had unfortunately found out earlier. As clichéd as it was to say it, it was quiet… too quiet. It wasn't as if they were expecting any noise but nevertheless, the near silence was rather unnerving.

"Wait a minute," said Ash. "Can you hear something? Kinda like a humming sound."

"The only thing I can hear is the sound of your voice," Trip muttered.

"No wait, I can hear it too, Ash," said Iris. "It sounds like it's coming from a big machine. It must be coming from behind those doors. I don't think we've explored that area yet."

"Well, we better take a look," said Cilan uncertainly. "Perhaps it's nothing really, nothing at all."

These doors were much stiffer than the previous ones that they had encountered, not to mention much larger as well. And rather than a lock, the only way to gain access into the room was to use a pass-card of some kind, which they did not have of course. Trip ordered his Servine to use Leaf Blade on them and managed to deliver a little damage. Since Snivy also knew Leaf Blade, Ash called her out to help Servine. Soon enough, Iris and Cilan were helping out too with their own Pokémon, Excadrill and Pansage and Ash also called out Scraggy, knowing his Pokémon's love for head-butting things. Emolga came out just to see what all the fuss was.

Recently, Pikachu had noted with interest how Oshawott seemed to blush whenever he was in close proximity to Snivy. Oshawott was trying to and failing to hide it now but fortunately, everybody else was concentrating on getting the doors open. As well as this increased interest in Snivy, Oshawott had also been successfully ignoring Emolga's nonsensical demands for the past fortnight, even resisting her constant use of Attract which she employed as a means of overpowering Pokémon like Oshawott. If this was the case then, had Oshawott finally given up on chasing after the first cute Pokémon that he saw and was looking for a serious relationship?

And then Snivy herself. She was far better at hiding what she was feeling than most of the Pokémon that Pikachu had travelled with but it seemed strange that she suddenly wanted to have her training sessions with Oshawott more often at any rate. It was all very interesting.

_How can I hope to compete?_ Oshawott thought sadly, oblivious to Pikachu's observations of them both. _I'm nowhere near good enough for her. I'd be an embarrassment. She deserves better than me._

The doors shattered under the combined force of Snivy and Servine's Leaf Blades as they delivered the final blow. They had been in perfect sync and despite the fact that Servine was the one who had evolved; they appeared to be evenly matched in power. Oshawott looked at them both. Servine grinned and draped a vine over Snivy's shoulder as if he was tired. She quickly shrugged the vine off before anyone noticed and turned away from the Grass-Type Pokémon. Servine shot Oshawott a smirk, seeing that the Pokémon was hotly blushing. Inside, Oshawott was seething and knew that Servine was just asking for a scalchop where it would hurt.

_Oh, get over yourself,_ he thought glumly once they entered the next room. _You're jealous and you haven't even had the guts to ask her out! If only I could talk to her about it. But that won't happen. Stop dreaming!_

"Whoa, what is it?" Ash breathed. Oshawott looked up and was startled by what he saw.

One could describe it as a Rube Goldberg Machine; such was its highly complicated-looking and peculiar nature. It appeared to be all steel pipes, large gears and strange devices that nevertheless created a forbidding contraption that easily towered above the entire group. There was a cavernous hatch at the front of the device large enough even for a Snorlax to slide down. Oshawott gulped and hid behind Snivy before he realised what he was doing. He coughed in embarrassment and diverted his attention elsewhere. He saw Servine glaring at him. He glared back.

"It must have been some experiment for Team Plasma to have to build this machine," Cilan mused. "It's actually quite a masterpiece, one that undoubtedly delights machine connoisseurs such as me."

"Is there anything that you're not a connoisseur of, Cilan?" Iris asked wearily. She didn't want to sit through another epic connoisseur speech about whatever it was that Cilan was interested in. "Anyway, we can't just go admiring this! If it's Team Plasma, then it can't be anything good! It needs to be stopped!"

"It's not doing anything apart from sitting there," Trip said coolly. "And what makes you say that, anyway? Team Plasma is supposed to free Pokémon rather than steal them or anything like that."

"Trip, would you like your Pokémon taken off you without any say in the matter?" said Ash. "It doesn't matter if you're a good trainer or not, they'll still try to take them off you. And that's stealing." When Ash didn't receive a reply, he sighed and continued. "Look, Team Plasma wants to separate people and Pokémon and we don't know why. We haven't found anything in this place to even give us a clue but I'm not letting people and Pokémon be taken away from each other. I couldn't give up being friends with Pokémon."

**"~Chaaaaa~"** Pikachu added, making his opinion loud and clear, even if they couldn't tell what he was saying exactly.

"Well, it's not as if I could either," said Trip after a while. "Who doesn't want to be with Pokémon? But what makes you so sure about this whole business with Team Plasma?"

"Professor Juniper has filled us in on some details on previous occasions when we've met up with her," said Iris in a somewhat smug manner. "She's heard quite a bit about them being a Pokémon Professor. And of course, we got some information from Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy as well."

"Yeah? Well, how come I've not heard anything from Professor Juniper then?"

"Didn't she tell you that it could be dangerous?" asked Ash curiously.

As their Trainers had begun to argue with Trip, Pikachu and Axew leapt onto the ground next to Oshawott and Snivy with Servine a little way off. The machine was still humming but it didn't appear to be dangerous whatever it was. However, Pikachu knew from experience that appearances could be deceptive; it looked like some weird contraption that Team Rocket would build in the old days. He only wished that Axew knew that as the little Dragon Pokémon suddenly went wandering away from the group.

**"~Pikachu!~"** he hissed as he dragged Axew back from the controls console of the machine. Axew didn't seem to take much notice of him. This thing was far more fascinating, especially the glowing red button in the middle of the high console. It would be difficult to reach it though since he was only a small Pokémon and in any case, he was now being watched by Pikachu. Axew sighed. He never got any fun…

The trouble was that Pikachu couldn't keep an eye on everyone at once. He could hear Oshawott and Servine having a whispered and yet quite heated argument behind him again and Snivy didn't seem too sure about whom to support. Whether that was due to clashing teammate loyalty and species loyalty or something else entirely, he didn't know and quite frankly, he didn't care. This constant arguing needed to stop at some point. They really could be as bad as their Trainers…

**"~Oshawott!~Oshawott!~"**

**"~Servine!~Servine!~Servine!~"**

**"~OSHAWOTT!~"**

Pikachu wondered what a peaceful life would be like as he listened to the argument, something to do with strength, evolution and petty insults, as Axew tried to wriggle free from his grasp. He was ready to give the pair of them a piece of his own mind when without warning; Servine suddenly used Leaf Blade on Oshawott, a highly critical move. Oshawott did not have time to react and was subsequently slammed straight into the console, ricocheting off the red button before slamming into the floor with all the wind knocked out of him.

Pikachu could have slapped himself. The one button Oshawott had to press and it was the painfully obviously large one that was bound to set something off.

"Hey! Why did your Servine just attack my Oshawott?!" Ash yelled angrily. Oshawott pulled himself upright and prepared to launch a powerful Tackle at his opponent. Pikachu had rarely seen his teammate so enraged. It was really quite unnerving.

"Your Oshawott must have obviously provoked my Servine," said Trip calmly. "I guess your Oshawott isn't quite mature yet. After all, he couldn't even open his eyes underwater a while ago until I spotted it."

If Oshawott could speak, then the first thing he would say was that Servine was the one doing the provoking and that he would have been happy to have been left alone. The next thing he would have said was for Trip to shut up and that he was glad he hadn't been chosen by him after all.

Before their very eyes, the machine then came to life.

"What's happening?" Ash cried out in alarm as they all heard strange rumbling sounds come from within the Plasma Device. A row of computer screens suddenly lit up and displayed a whole load of information that only the scientists working for Team Plasma could understand. However, even if the Trainers could understand it, they wouldn't have been able to read the information as the screens were cracked and the text looked garbled. Axew stopped squirming and starting holding onto Pikachu tightly instead.

The Trainers and their Pokémon froze as holographic laser beams, coming from the machine, scanned their bodies, seemingly examining them to the very core. Oshawott quivered as the laser passed over his scalchop and noted its cracked exterior. Cilan being Cilan was the first to notice that images of their Pokémon were being pasted onto the screens, fuzzy as they were. Pikachu, Axew, Oshawott, Snivy, Servine, Pansage, Tepig, Excadrill, Emolga…

Wait. The contents of their Poké Balls were also being examined, in a similar manner to how they would be examined at a Pokémon Centre. The entire process seemed painfully slow. Everybody held their breath, unsure of whether they should attack it, leave it alone or just run. Then suddenly, a row of metallic appendages shot out and grabbed the nearest Pokémon to them.

**"~PIKAPI!~"**

**"PIKACHU!"** Ash yelled as his precious partner was snatched up without warning. Pikachu tried to use Thunderbolt but it did not have any effect at all. Neither did any of the other attacks that the other Pokémon tried to use. Oshawott growled with fury and without thinking, he slashed at the arm with his scalchop. Not only did it fail to do anything useful but his scalchop then split into two pieces. Oshawott was completely horrified.

"I'm not letting it take my Pokémon!" Ash snarled.

Ash dashed forwards but was immediately assailed by the metallic arms trying to snatch his remaining Poké Balls. The screaming and yelling from behind him made Ash realise that they were also in the same predicament. One by one, despite their struggles, each and every Poké Ball was taken off them and held almost mockingly out of reach.

"Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt on the machine!" Pikachu tried to use his move again but his attack just seemed to be absorbed by the metal.

"Axew! Use Dragon Rage!" Iris screamed. Axew attempted it but he found that he was too scared go do anything. Iris tried to grab the Dragon-Type but there was no way to get close enough to any of them.

"Oshawott! Use Water Gun on the machine!" Ash cried out desperately. Oshawott didn't seem to hear him though, being traumatised by the loss of his scalchop. He held each piece as if they were his lifelines. The others didn't know just how important a scalchop was to any Oshawott.

"OSHAWOTT! YOU NEED TO USE WATER GUN NOW!" Ash yelled.

Oshawott shot a spray of cold water at the machine's vital controls and blasted it out as long as he could. Something fizzed and crackled; some of the controls whirred erratically and yet that wasn't enough to stop their impending fate. Oshawott was the first to be directed to the awaiting hatch, to whatever awaited within as the sensors apparently picked on the fact that Oshawott was the one attacking the delicate system. He struggled violently and viciously, using Water Gun again and again but unfortunately for Oshawott, he was easily overpowered and with one swift movement, he was fiercely thrown down into the hatch and he disappeared from sight into the dark depths of the machine.

The sounds of the Trainers were quickly left behind and he couldn't hear the other Pokémon following him as his body slammed into the sides of the chute on the way down. He immediately felt the heat and humidity rise and sincerely hoped that if he was going to die, he would at least see Snivy first as his last memory.

To Oshawott's surprise; he didn't so much land as splash into a mysterious, glowing liquid which he accidentally swallowed. Oshawott choked and gasped as his throat burned. Being a Water-Type, he could technically breathe underwater but in this instance, it was not a good thing. This had to be highly poisonous stuff; his stomach was churning and the chemicals smelled highly toxic to his sensitive nose.

Oshawott thrashed about, fighting a horrendous pain that made him feel that his throat was on fire. He wondered if he would be able to speak again after this; the chemicals were practically attacking his vocal chords. He tried swimming to the side only to find there was nothing to cling onto and all the while, the Water Pokémon needed water to drink.

He eventually heard the others fall down the chute with the Poké Balls tumbling down first and out of instinct; Oshawott dived underwater to avoid everybody falling on top of him. Thankfully, the Poké Balls floated as they rose up to the surface of the liquid. Oshawott held his breath as on the surface, there was a terrible commotion what with all the panicking and splashing and shoving and yelling. It didn't help that whatever they were in had now started to shake ferociously, causing the occupants to be tossed from side to side.

Oshawott could hear his heartbeat getting painfully louder. His nerves were screaming at him, telling him to breathe. It was against his nature to force himself to stop breathing underwater even if this liquid was likely very lethal. There was poison above and poison below. The tumult above him was strangely distorted; his heartbeat was getting louder than ever. He needed oxygen and there wasn't a lot of that underwater either.

He couldn't help it. He breathed.

Fully expecting his insides to suffer a terrible burning sensation all over, Oshawott swam upwards and broke the surface. The noise from the machine suddenly hit him; it was much louder than before. Everybody was having difficulties in trying to keep their heads above water, especially Axew and Scraggy, the youngest members of their family. Oshawott quickly swam over and grabbed the pair of them. They held onto him tightly though the extra weight forced Oshawott to kick harder to stay afloat. He soon saw that everybody was trying to make their way over to him.

Oshawott tried to speak even though his throat was still burning and the noise kept getting even louder. "Guys, whatever you do," he said to all of them. "Don't swallow any of this stuff. I don't know what it is but it could seriously hurt you. So for Arceus' sake, don't swallow it!" He was suddenly aware that everybody was staring at him. "OK! OK! So I swallowed it! It wasn't intentional! That's why I'm telling you not to swallow it!"

"You're… talking human talk…" said Pikachu slowly. Oshawott froze with sudden realisation.

"Yeah," he said equally slowly. "You… are… as well."

Everybody went deadly silent as they tried to take in what had just happened to them. They tentatively tried out their own voices. Human talk. Not Pokémon talk. Human talk.

"Human talk…" said Oshawott dazed as everybody else began screaming. "This stuff makes us talk human talk. But Team Plasma's experiments, I mean… why can we talk? _Why can we talk?_"


	2. Revelations

**Chapter 2: Revelations**

"OK, this is bizarre…" Oshawott muttered to himself as he treaded liquid. "We have to be dreaming or something. Yeah, that's it. I got knocked out by that stupid Servine for no good reason and I'm hallucinating all of this. For some reason, I'm dreaming that I'm talking like a human maybe so that I can say what is really going on between me and that moron. Yeah, that's it. …I hope I'm not hooked up to a dream recording machine or something like that."

"Nice thought," said Pikachu. "But since we can hear everything that you're saying, I can tell you that you're not dreaming." Oshawott looked up in surprise. The cacophony inside the machine had finally died down and he realised that they were no longer being tossed about like rag-dolls. He saw that Axew and Scraggy were still clinging onto him for dear life. He then frowned. He half-expected Pikachu's voice to be high-pitched being a Mouse Pokémon but it was moderately deep, probably because he was older than Oshawott.

"Yeah, and I heard everything you said too, you water rat," Servine sneered. He sounded his usual confident self and yet Oshawott thought he could detect a real hint of fear in his new voice since he could not understand what was going on and in this instance, he couldn't play an evolutionary and type advantage over Oshawott. Oshawott grinned.

"Did you now? Glad to see that some part of your brain is working then, you toadying twit. And you know what? We wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't attacked me on purpose so yeah, thanks for that."

"Oh, you're so welcome," Servine retorted. "I could do it again if you like. In fact, I'd be happy to oblige."

"Will you two stop arguing all the time?" Snivy hissed before Oshawott could retaliate. "We need to get of here before something else happens! And besides, our Trainers might hear us. While it would be great for us to communicate properly with them, it would only cause problems in the long-run not only with our Trainers but probably everyone else." Oshawott swallowed nervously. Her voice…

"She's right," said Pikachu solemnly. "Whatever happens, we can't let anybody know about this… this… skill of ours. What do you think would happen if people suddenly heard talking Pokémon? We'd never hear the end of it. We wouldn't be allowed to travel anywhere, we wouldn't be able to fight battles, we wouldn't be ourselves, we would be commodities. Everything would change and not necessarily for the better."

"Team Rocket's Meowth seems to manage OK," Tepig pointed out reasonably. Oshawott wasn't listening however. He was too busy replaying Snivy's voice in his head. He suddenly wanted her to talk again.

"That's because Meowth can pass himself off as a human pretty well," said Pikachu. He then wondered how Meowth had originally dealt with the ability to walk and talk even though the circumstances were entirely different. He decided to consider it later. "Not to mention that he's been doing so for quite a long time, I should know. We wouldn't be able to, most of us are the wrong shape for starters and we have fairly obvious features that humans don't really have. I think that the only one here that would have any chance of pretending to be human is Oshawott… . I'm not saying that is a good idea!" he said when he saw Oshawott's face suddenly light up. "You'd probably be able to disguise yourself but I don't think you could be like a human."

"Oh, I don't know," said Oshawott with an almost evil smile. "I'd be able to give Trip a piece of my mind. He wouldn't know what to do. And I would love it."

"That will be a small piece then…" Servine muttered.

"And gain the attention of Team Plasma and Team Rocket?" Snivy sighed. "If any of them heard us, Team Plasma would know that their experiments were successful for whatever reason. We don't know why they wanted this experiment conducted so that's all the more reason for us to avoid getting noticed."

"And Team Rocket would probably abandon their all-important missions and try to capture the lot of us," said Pikachu.

"They try to capture us a lot anyway," said Tepig.

"They try to capture _me_," said Pikachu with the tones of one who has seen it all and done it all before. "It's only if you're convenient at that time to capture that they try to capture you. But if they hear us talking, then convenient or not, we'd be packaged off to Giovanni before you could you 'Team Rocket.'"

"Team Rocket," Oshawott blurted.

"Are you being at all serious about this?" asked Pikachu wearily.

"Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood…"

"Well, I've never been a target of this Team Rocket," said Servine smugly. "So I reckon I would be fine. We've never come across them before anyway."

"Servine," said Snivy warningly. "Somehow, I don't think your Trainer would be able to keep quiet about this. He is quite the boastful type; much like yourself I have to say. He would only say to our Trainer about your new amazing ability to talk and considering how often we get tailed by Team Rocket, they would soon pick up on this fact and you would be whisked away along with everybody else because, according to what Pikachu knows about them, they don't mess about any more. Do you want to risk that?"

"Oh, Snivy," he whined.

"_Do you?"_

"I…" Servine relented. "I guess not."

"What a kid!" Axew giggled childishly. Pikachu groaned inwardly. Now he would be hearing that from Axew as well as Iris. It seemed that the little Dragon had picked up quite a bit from his Trainer…

Oshawott was puzzled. Why did Servine behave in such a familiar way towards Snivy when they barely had the chance to communicate with each other before? Oshawott stiffened. Was he trying to lull her into a false sense of security or something by acting this way? Oh, no. As far as Oshawott was concerned, Servine was as bad as Trip and under no circumstances was he about to allow Servine have his perverted way with the girl of Oshawott's dreams.

It was fortunate then that they were interrupted when they were as everybody suddenly heard their Trainers calling out for them.

"Pikachu! Everybody! Are you OK?!" Ash yelled, his voice muffled by the thick walls.

"**~PIKACHU!~"** Pikachu answered back before anyone else gave themselves away. Taking their cue from the Electric-Type, everybody else began to make their presence known via Poké Speak.

"We've managed to shut down this contraption," said Cilan. "I think there should be an exit somewhere near the back but we don't seem to have the tools to open it from the outside. If you can somehow get over there and attack it from the inside, then you should probably have enough force to break through this metal. This switch will possibly move something inside. Why they built it this way I don't know…" he said trailing off.

Whatever it was Cilan pressed, it showed that being a machine connoisseur was by all means no bad thing as a compartment slid open and began draining the liquid inside. Oshawott was especially glad about this as he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep himself, Axew and Scraggy aloft for. The young pair immediately leapt from his arms and shook themselves dry as Pikachu made it _especially_ clear to them that they must not unveil their ability to speak to their Trainers; it had to be kept secret.

As soon as each Poké Ball was accounted for (no doubt they had experienced the same change as they had), everybody scrambled out as soon as possible although Oshawott stayed behind to search for his broken scalchop since there was no way he was leaving that behind. He eventually found the pieces had been washed into a corner and he picked them up sighing. The other Pokémon might have considered him overly sentimental for placing so much attachment to a shell that would eventually grow back anyway but he had never broken his scalchop before…

Oshawott could hear the combined efforts of Pikachu, Snivy, Tepig and even that blasted Servine use their most powerful attacks against the titanium door that blocked their way to freedom. Though he didn't feel that he would be much help, Oshawott was about to join them before they noticed his disappearance. Somebody though, blocked his path and Oshawott was alarmed to suddenly find himself pressed against the warm metallic walls. A spark unwillingly jumped through his body.

"Emolga," he breathed. "What on earth are you doing?"

He had lost interest in Emolga quite some time ago after realising that nothing would come off it since all that she seemed to use him for was an apple-collecting delivery Pokémon. And besides, once the effects of Attract dissipated and he was snapped back to reality, Oshawott was then embarrassingly aware of how unaware he was about whatever he was doing under the force of Attract. Also, Snivy was often the one to snap him out of it which only increased his sense of embarassment. This only made clear that Emolga had no interest in him whatsoever on a romantic level and possibly not that much of a friend. However, this sudden attention was quite unnerving for him.

"Oshawott, I've just been thinking…" she said breathlessly. Oshawott quivered as sparks jumped off her electrically-charged fur onto his own. She was far too close for his liking. "What with everything that has gone on today, going into Team Plasma's lab, getting caught by that machine, being _changed_ like that without warning... It's been a pretty strange day, you know. We're not the same Pokémon as we were, even Snivy would admit to that. Oh sure, we've got to be careful, but I think we could get some advantage out of this. I mean, how many of our dear fellow Pokémon can talk like we can, hmm? Practically none. This could get us somewhere; we wouldn't just be little, inconsequential Trainers' Pokémon. Just think of the influence we'd have!"

"By… being able to talk?" he confirmed uneasily. He scratched his ruff in embarrassment in that she had practically pinned him against the metal.

"Consider it a gift," she said promptly. "With our ability, we could have anything we wanted! We would be properly understood for once, every other Pokémon would respect us, we wouldn't just be your average Pokémon, and we'd be something so much more. And of course, if we made ourselves known, I should think that our Trainers would get rich and we'd be properly looked after and pampered and have all the apples I can eat. Er, I mean, that we can eat. It would make a change from all that bothersome battling. Just think, Oshawott, it could be a new beginning for both of us!"

"I don't know…" he said hesitating. "I quite like life the way it is and I want to get stronger through battles. And anyway, like you said yourself, we've got to be careful. We've suddenly become really valuable… too valuable. So we can't be found out." _And besides_, he thought to himself. _There's only one thing that I want and talking like a human won't do anything to change that._

"Oh, you worry too much," she said tickling his chin. Oshawott swallowed with nerves. This didn't feel right. There were only two, maybe three people, who he wanted to do that, all for entirely different reasons. "All we'd need to do is go somewhere public and plan it out properly, maybe a Contest or something. Everybody would love it; they'd especially love to hear me… and you too. And it could well work wonders for relationships between people and Pokémon. Team Plasma couldn't complain then about people mistreating us if we could understand each other."

_She has a fair point_, Oshawott mused. After all, he wanted to make it clear to Trip that he wasn't weak or in any way inferior to Servine. He just wanted to take things at his own pace. And he just wanted some attention from Ash on the same level that Pikachu got. It didn't even have to be all of the time, just every now and then. Was that all together wrong?

And yet… this was taking things too fast too soon. They had to get used to their gift first. If they could get used to it at all that is. His own voice still sounded peculiar to him and it would for quite some time yet. And besides, she was probably only talking to him first about this rather than anybody else since she knew what a sucker he had been in the past. Well, Oshawott had decided that he wasn't going to be a sucker this time. Emolga carried on making her point as Pikachu and the others suddenly broke their way to freedom.

"Look," he said, gently pushing her away. "If we were going to use this at some point, then they would have to be for very good reasons. But… give it a bit of time, OK? I mean, there's no rush, right? We've still got a few more badges to get and stuff to do and-"

"At least think about it won't you, Oshawott?" Emolga pleaded. She was giving him the waterworks look. Oh, no, he wasn't going to fall for that one again.

"Well… alright," Oshawott lied. "I'll give it some thought. But come on, we need to get out of here."

"Oshawott, there you are! I wondered where you two had got," said Ash when Oshawott and Emolga finally emerged. Emolga flew to Iris's arms and put on her cute act again. Oshawott noticed Servine glaring at him before the Grass-Type was suddenly returned to his Poké Ball. "I'm just glad you're unharmed."

"At least nothing bad seems to have happened to them," said Iris nervously as she returned Emolga back to her Poké Ball. "Maybe this place was abandoned because whatever experiment they were trying to run here was a complete failure!"

"Oh, please," said Trip. "They would have to have more reasons than that to suddenly leave a base that cost so much money to set up in the first place."

"Well at least I have an idea!" Iris shrieked. "If you're so smart, why don't you tell me what is going on around here?"

"I suggest we leave immediately before anything else happens," said Cilan. "I'm also sure that Professor Juniper will want to know about this. She might want to take a look at our Pokémon."

"Good idea," said Ash. "She should still be in town. You'll need to come as well, Trip."

"I already realised that," Trip heaved before leading the way out of the P2 Laboratory with Iris and Cilan gladly following.

Ash shrugged his shoulders. It looked like Trip was never going to change. He really was a kid. He took out Oshawott's Poké Ball and commanded Oshawott to return. Oshawott's vision dissolved momentarily before returning to sharp-focus immediately as he materialised inside his Poké Ball. Oshawott stretched himself out and sighed. He was beginning to understand why Pikachu never travelled about in his Poké Ball. The world inside his Poké Ball was pretty to be sure; it had all the elements of the outside world such as grass, trees, a running river and other natural features except that it was a lot more limited in space. One could walk to the edge of the world inside a Poké Ball and get no further as they were blocked by invisible walls. It just seemed so… insubstantial. Maybe he would stay out permanently from now on. If Pikachu did, then why couldn't he? And same with Axew. In fact, he wasn't sure if he even had a Poké Ball.

It was expected for Pokémon to remain inside their Poké Balls when they weren't battling, taking part in miscellaneous events or eating their Pokémon food. Most were happy to do so since a Poké Ball was generally a safe and secure place in which a Pokémon could also enjoy their privacy. And yet it wasn't entirely secure was it? The Pokémon who had not been sent out had still been captured and… changed. They must have been since the machine had snatched them up as well.

Oshawott stopped himself. He had only just realised that he had been talking out loud. Funny, it seemed a lot easier to put his thoughts in order by repeating them to himself with the access of a greatly extended vocabulary. He had to watch out for that. What was he thinking all this time?

"I don't suppose I'll be getting much rest tonight," he mumbled as he drifted off into an uncomfortable sleep.

* * *

"If I had known that you would be put in so much danger, I wouldn't have contacted Nurse Joy and Officer Joy to get in touch with you all. I wouldn't have let you go in the first place!"

"Relax, Professor," said Ash cheerfully. "We got ourselves in a bit of trouble, sure, but we got out of it fine enough, right Pikachu?" He got the usual bright **"~Pikachu!~"** in return.

As planned, everybody had stopped by the Pokémon Centre to get their Pokémon checked out. Professor Juniper had arrived promptly as soon as she was contacted via Trip's Xtransreceiver. Since the Pokémon Centre was quiet, Nurse Joy was happy to grant Professor Juniper's request to use some of the more technical medical equipment usually reserved for examining Pokémon who had contracted rare and serious afflictions. It was a lengthy operation even with the help of Juniper's assistants since every Pokémon had to be examined out of its Poké Ball. Pikachu was especially grateful that he had time to warn everybody the previous night about the whole situation that they were now in. Because of this, the Pokémon remained remarkably quiet with only a squeak of protest here and there. It was only after several hours of metaphorical prodding and poking that Juniper was satisfied with their condition. She had decided to stay for the time being, just to keep an eye on them and was currently tickling Oshawott's chin much to his contentment. He had always enjoyed that.

"**~Oshaaaa…~"** he sighed happily. Not even the fact that he was to be stuck with Servine for a week at the very least could disturb him now. His front still throbbed due to the unnecessary force of Servine's Leaf Blade and his lack of a whole scalchop was disconcerting but he was trying to ignore that.

"Even so, I should have called in a couple of veterans or something," said Juniper hesitating. "I shouldn't have depended on you guys so much, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, Professor," said Cilan as he fed his Pansage a few of his own speciality treats. "We did agree to it, after all, and you said yourself that you couldn't get hold of anybody else at the time. It was imperative that we checked the P2 Laboratory before some less-experienced Trainers came along to investigate it."

"Cilan's right," said Ash in confirmation. "We'd have probably gone along to investigate ourselves anyway since we always manage to get ourselves tangled in something by accident or on purpose!" Juniper smiled at that. "So anyway, what's going to happen now?"

"Well, I think we'll get Unova's top scientists onto the job," she replied. "From the sounds of it, they'll have an awful lot of stuff to investigate, stuff that I probably wouldn't be able to understand. I study Pokémon after all, not genius equipment. They'll keep in contact with me and my associates and then we'll see what will come of it. Speaking of which, have you seen Team Plasma recently?"

"Not for ages," said Iris. "It's a bit strange. Why would they suddenly disappear like that?"

"They might have decided to retreat for the time being to make absolutely sure that the media spotlight remains off them," Juniper mused. "Most of the populace still believe that they are doing good and even with my status, it's hard to convince people that it's really the opposite." Ash glanced over at Trip who seemed occupied with browsing through the pictures on his camera. "My associates and I have unfortunately had little success in investigating them but we have found out a bit here and there. But of course, some of the Pokémon back at the lab have picked up on what we have discussed as well."

"You mean, Oshawott?" Ash asked as she indicated the Water-Type. Oshawott was brought out of his state of relaxation by the mention of Team Plasma and only settled down again when she resumed her gentle caresses.

"You know as well as I do how curious he is," she said. "He found out a few things that he wasn't supposed to. It's a shame that Oshawott can't tell you these things himself." Oshawott flinched as did Pikachu but fortunately, none of the humans noticed. "Imagine if Pokémon could talk; I think that would probably change the relationship between people and Pokémon forever. It's an interesting thought. Perhaps I should research that."

This was getting into dangerous waters, Pikachu and Oshawott thought. Fortunately, Nurse Joy entered the room accompanied by Audino who had had her work cut out in looking after everybody's Pokémon. Servine was especially grateful to her. This only made Oshawott's convictions that he was a player even stronger; he'd made moves towards Snivy of course; now he was making moves towards a sweet, innocent Audino. The nerve of it. Speaking of which, Servine was staring at her now with an unusual amount of interest. The Audino practically giggled.

"Good evening. How is everybody's Pokémon getting along?" she asked smiling.

"They're looking fine," Professor Juniper replied, obviously relieved. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to stay behind and keep an eye on them, just in case something changes within the next 24 hours."

"Of course," said Nurse Joy. "We always have accommodation spare for a Professor such as yourself."

"Well, thank goodness," said Juniper. "I won't be here all the time though; I'm currently running an investigation on the Bug Pokémon in this area anyway. In fact, I'm going to turn in for the night since one has to get up early in the morning to catch the Wurmple! Goodnight and pleasant dreams."

"Goodnight, Professor!" they chorused as she took her leave. Oshawott was the most vocal since having been raised in the lab shortly after his hatching; Juniper was essentially his substitute mother. He lay back on the cushions and let the conversations wash over him. He could have quite easily drifted off.

"The Professor wants stay out of your Poké Ball for the time being so you can stay down here," Trip said to his Servine. "Maybe I'll do some training with the others tomorrow; they've recovered after all. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow." Trip also left and so Servine remained in the Pokémon Rest Bay with his rival Pokémon. Not that he was fussed. Instead, he found a comfortable spot and curled up on it.

Trip had taken only Servine to the P2 Laboratory the previous day since the rest of his Pokémon had got involved in an unfortunate accident with a large group of Bouffulant. This meant that Servine was the only one of Trip's Pokémon to be able to talk. Rather than feeling isolated because of it, this only heightened Servine's sense of superiority. And besides, he could still use Poké Speak like everybody else in order to keep the façade safe.

Everybody seemed to follow suit and though they wouldn't be able to effectively train for some time, they were sure that they could still do something fun the next day. Pikachu and Axew opted to remain with their fellow Pokémon for once. And as soon as their Trainers were out of earshot, they began talking to each other in low voices. Servine stomped over to Oshawott and dragged him upright. Neither Pokémon was much amused.

"Can't you see I'm trying to do something important here?" Oshawott grumbled. "Like trying to sleep?"

"Quite frankly, I don't care what you get up to as long as you stay away from Snivy!" the Grass-Type hissed. Oshawott narrowed his eyes.

"Why? What do you think I'm going to do? I'll have you know that I am a gentleman and I would never hurt another Pokémon such as Snivy." Servine gave a snort while Snivy curiously listened in.

"Oh yeah? You keep going from one female to another like you're trying to set some sort of record or something. What do you do? Play about with them a little, tell them that that nobody else could match them, do the whole relationship thing and then dump them?"

Oshawott took a deep breath. This was grossly unfair. He had never got past the flirting stage to develop a relationship with anybody since he never had the time to do so or they rejected him before he even started. But he would never trifle with the affairs of the heart in such a manner. Besides, Snivy would probably injure him in some way if he did. She had strong opinions on that sort of thing which was why she and Emolga clashed so often.

"And what took you so long to come out of that machine?" he continued. "You and that other Pokémon, Emolga wasn't it? After everything that had just happened, you just carry on being the player as if nothing happened and you don't even apologise for it. I bet you were planning something heinous again. It's just disgusting. How low can you go?"

"Now hold on!" he said angrily. "I wasn't flirting with her, she was flirting with me!"

_That isn't surprising,_ Snivy thought. Unfortunately, Emolga also heard.

"Why, Oshawott! How can you say such a thing?" she gasped, as if wounded. "Everybody knows what you're like, you do chase after every girl you see even if they have no interest in you. And everyone knows that I'm just happy with a bunch of apples, thank you very much." Her voice carried across the room. Everybody muttered amongst themselves since both statements were technically correct. Oshawott turned red.

"Why do you even say things like that, Emolga?" he spluttered. "You know about that proposal earlier? Well forget it. I told you, I'm happy with things the way they are."

_What proposal?_ Snivy considered. Servine seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Oho, there you go again. Don't tell me: you're the innocent in all of this. Probably something that we shouldn't know about. Good grief, will you ever get a grip on yourself?"

"Brother, will you just leave Oshawott alone?" Snivy said quietly. "You keep going on at him and you're not exactly a beacon of light yourself. You're blowing this completely out of proportion." Oshawott repeated the words to himself and was stunned by the revelation as was everybody else.

"'Brother?'" he confirmed.

"Neither of us saw any reason to mention it before," said Snivy. "And considering how much of a jerk he can be, well, why mention it?"

"That's not fair!" Servine whined.

_Well at least I know he's not going after her,_ Oshawott thought to himself. This was the good news. The bad news was that it was going to be more difficult now than ever to let his love be known to her without the other Grass-Type breathing down his neck.

"It's that really why you attacked me earlier?" Oshawott queried. "Because you thought I would hurt Snivy, your sister, in some way? You obviously don't know me at all then. Because that isn't me. No, you just think I'm worthless. What have I done to deserve this? You had absolutely no grounds to attack me whatsoever!" His front glowed red showing the nasty mark left behind.

"Oh, believe me," Servine growled. "I had every right and reason for my actions since not only do you have an ego the size of Unova, you are a stupid, vain, boastful and above all, weak reject!"

"_Reject?!_" Oshawott snarled. He was getting absolutely sick of this. "Just because I left the lab when I wasn't chosen, it doesn't mean that I'm a reject!"

"Oh yes? And how many times has it been when you were _not_ chosen? That wasn't your first time was it?" When Oshawott remained silent, Servine allowed himself a satisfied smirk. "Because, tell me if I'm wrong, that was the 18th time that you were not chosen wasn't it? That's why you've been at the Professor's lab for so long because you have never been chosen."

"The right Trainer just didn't come along at that time," said Oshawott in a quiet voice. Everybody was listening him with heightened interest. "And how do you know about that anyway?"

"Why, I had my sources at the lab of course," said Servine lightly. "So even though I arrived later than you did, I already had more experience than you. You only knew what? Tackle, Razor Shell and Water Gun? And after so long at the lab too... how pathetic. I've forgotten more than you've learnt. You're no worthy rival for me, that's obvious. And you want to know something else? You still haven't been chosen. Not really. You know that Pikachu is your Trainer's favourite and yet you still keep trying to catch your attention of your Trainer, hoping that you'll suddenly become a new favourite. _Ooh, look at me! Look at me! Please pick me!_" he repeated nastily, in a voice similar to Oshawott's. "It's a waste of your time and a waste of your Trainer's time. And you're not exactly a hit with the ladies either, are you? You just keep flirting with one and then another and then another; just what do you think you keep playing at? What sort of Pokémon do you think you are? Face it; you're nothing but an unchosen, backwater _water rat!_"

"You know something?" said Oshawott in an even quieter voice than before. "I'm glad I wasn't chosen by Trip. I'd probably end up a lot like you. You have a lot in common with your Trainer. Well, I hope you're proud of yourself. You keep saying that I'm unchosen and therefore unwanted? Your Trainer chose you? Well, Servine, I chose mine. And that's nothing to be ashamed of."

Everybody felt highly uncomfortable as Oshawott turned away and retreated to a corner of the room in which he could be alone. Snivy traded furious whispers with her brother while watching Oshawott all the time. Oshawott faced the wall and didn't care that he was shivering with the sudden chill of moving. He clenched his teeth together in a failed bid to stop tears rolling.

"What's the point?" he muttered to himself. "I can't get anything right. They'll believe Emolga and Servine over me just because she's cute and he has authority. I don't deserve Snivy; she should have someone else. _What is the point?_"

* * *

**Hmm, that chapter was quite hard to write but I personally think that it's not too bad. Yeah, I like the theory that Oshawott has stayed at the lab for ages otherwise… why would he be so keen to run away to go after Ash after being rejected by Trip? Heck, I just like the idea. **

**Well, what do you think? I like to hear your thoughts. Oh, but remember, most of the ideas aren't mine. And cuddle an Oshawott while you're at it because Oshawotts deserve cuddling. :D**


	3. Friends and Foes Alike

**Hey there! Apologies for the wait, my dear readers but there were some unforeseen circumstances that I needed to help with. Note that I've decided to raise this to a T for… certain reasons.**

**P.S I'm glad you like the darkness of this story even though it wasn't **_**completely**_** intentional. The funny thing, I've also been writing another Pokémon story, all my own ideas for that one (another reason as to the delay alas), and believe me, that will be M-Rated dark. But I won't be uploading that one for some time. Enjoy reading this one!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Friends And Foes Alike**

It wasn't in Oshawott's usual happy-go-lucky nature to be miserable, but miserable he was. The week spent in the Pokémon Rest Bay had suddenly become absolutely torturous. The more everybody had tried to speak to him, the more he ignored them, not having the slightest inclination to speak to anybody. He had become as mute as if he could never speak at all, either human or Pokémon. The only time he broke his stony silence was when he found out that Pikachu had helped introduce Servine to Audino in a friendlier manner since he had noted an attraction between them.

"He's not even going to stay here!" Oshawott hissed when Pikachu had left the pair. "He's going to leave with his Trainer, and then he'll forget her and she will never see him again and that is the end of that!"

"I haven't got a grudge against Servine," said Pikachu reasonably. "He's just another one of my rivals. It's not as if he's my first one. And he can be… pleasant provided that Snivy's looked after. And surely you don't begrudge me helping out the Audino?"

"Help the Audino as much as you want. I have no problem with that. I'd help the Audino as much as possible if _he_ wasn't involved!"

Pikachu sighed. "How long is this going to continue, Oshawott? It's been six days and you haven't spoken to anybody else in all this time. We're not Psychic-Types you know; we don't know what you're thinking. You've been avoiding everybody, avoiding meals, avoiding Ash…"

"What of it?" Oshawott snapped. He had wanted some attention before but now he very much wanted to be alone. And as for his Trainer… well, he hated to admit it to itself but Servine was right about one thing: Pikachu was Ash's favourite Pokémon, always had been and always would be. Pikachu had never had to face rejection time and time again. As far as he was aware, Pikachu was the one doing the rejecting until he met with Ash. As for Oshawott, he had been rejected 18 times. That was more than enough to knock anybody's confidence in themselves. The only other Pokémon who had experienced some sort of rejection was Tepig but he had got over it fairly quickly since his previous Trainer was nothing more than a power-obsessive moron.

"We do worry about you, you know. But how am I supposed to be able to be help you if you won't tell me how you're feeling?"

"It doesn't matter what I say!" said Oshawott heatedly. "Because I know what you all think about me! You think I'm a flirtatious, insensitive _bastard _just because I've tried talking to a few girls. You obviously believe Emolga over me despite the countless times she has used Attract on me but you don't give a damn about that! You know that those talks have never worked out because I'm always rejected or I don't get the chance to develop things further. I've never even kissed anybody despite what you may think, let alone anything else so what is the problem? Oh, yeah, because I'm weak too, that's why. You heard Servine; I haven't learnt that many moves so that obviously means that I'm weak and pathetic. Especially as he's learnt a hell of a lot more than I have and me… well, you can count on one human hand how many moves I've learnt. I guess that's why Trip picked Servine in the first place; because he knew that Servine was strong and that I'm just pathetic. And I guess that's why Ash always favours you… Different Trainer, same reason…"

Whoa. His normally sky-high confidence really had taken a beating. "How can you say that?" said a shocked Pikachu. "You taken part in plenty of battles, a couple of Gym battles and you've got a pretty good track record. If Ash thought you were pathetic, then there would have been little reason to help you get stronger for that battle when you lost your scalchop. And since you haven't got a scalchop at the moment that training will probably come pretty handy."

Oshawott inwardly flinched. His scalchop was growing back slowly but he still felt uneasy without the whole shell. An Oshawott without his scalchop was like… a talking Pokémon, very rare. He hadn't even had the heart to get rid of his old scalchop. It was still in the Pokémon Rest Bay and he had made it absolutely clear to everybody that those pieces were not to be touched, especially Emolga since he suspected that she was the sort of Pokémon to mess about with somebody else's belongings and try to blame him for something else. She had been the most difficult Pokémon to avoid and several times he nearly broke his vow of silence. He hadn't the heart to do anything else at that time and he didn't have the heart to do anything now.

"Not much use at the moment though is it?" said Oshawott bitterly. "We're all stuck in here until we've been given the all-clear. And I suppose since I was the one who hit that button, that's got to be my fault too. Because I'm clumsy, because I'm an idiot, because I'll never match up to anybody's expectations, low as they are."

"Look, we know that the only reason you hit was because Servine attacked you with Leaf Blade. And as far as events go after that… well, what happened, happened. I'm sure we'll get used to it eventually. We're not even talking in Pokémon now if you've realised." _That's something we better watch out for._ "But anyway, nobody's said that they've got low expectations of you. We're not blaming you. Where in the heck did you get that impression from?"

"Same place from where you all think I'm a cold-hearted player," Oshawott snorted. "You're not blaming me?" He gave a cold laugh. "Yeah, right. Of course not. Because of course, it's entirely my fault about everything so that Servine's entirely justified in the way he treats me. You didn't even try to stick up for me! A little support would have been nice. I'd have done the same for you but no, I guess I'm expecting too much aren't I? Because everybody knows how degraded I am so Servine is perfectly free to bully me all he wants. I have been putting up with this for Arceus knows how long but you never even noticed. So what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to still put up with it and not complain at all no matter what I'm feeling? Oh yeah, I notice you didn't contradict the me being an idiot part. I can see why as well. So that's what you all really think of me, huh? Well, thanks for letting me know. Now, if you will excuse me O Leader of ours, I want to be left alone. Or is that too much to ask?"

Pikachu sighed with exasperation as Oshawott stormed off to be by himself again. What had gotten into him? He noticed that Snivy had joined him unexpectedly as she stared after Oshawott. She looked troubled which was unusual for her. Oshawott had even been avoiding Snivy whilst stuck at the Pokémon Centre and that spoke volumes indeed.

Pikachu did feel guilty though. There were times when Oshawott felt down but he hadn't realised that was anything to do with Servine. Oshawott often hid it well when he started chasing females and he seemed cheered up after that, forgetting any earlier clashes with the Grass-Type Pokémon. Their Trainers tended to meet at Pokémon Tournaments and Battle Clubs and Trip always had Servine on hand. And since Oshawott was nearly always with them, well, that must have been when the fighting started.

"It's like talking to a hatchling at times," Pikachu groaned. "Except this one needs to see a Pokémon psychiatrist. I mean, I admit I was a pain when I first started travelling but this is ridiculous…" All those raging hormones didn't help though. Though he looked to be a child in the eyes of humans, by Pokémon standards, Oshawott was technically an adolescent, not all that far from being classed as an adult, another reason why he particularly resented being called a hatchling. It explained a lot about his recent behaviour.

"He's just been through a hard time recently," she said softly. "Servine can be difficult to deal with. I've been dealing with him long enough before we both got ourselves Trainers. I honestly never expected that I would be seeing him in this close proximity again, even if he is the only family I have. But then, I suppose you can't choose your family."

"Well, I've always considered our teammates to be family," said Pikachu. "And since some of our teammates were hatched into our team like Scraggy, well, there can't be any other meaning other than that we are family. There's been partings sure in the old team; I've seen a lot of partings but I still consider them family. Some of them just… move on." _I wonder what they would think of me now?_ he thought. He had been changed by a Plasma experiment but deep down, he was the same old Pikachu. It was odd really, considering all the other things that he had been through. "I guess I didn't choose them," he continued. "But they chose to travel with us so in respect, they did choose their family. Like you did."

"I was impressed by your Trainer at the time and he proved himself to me. That is why I decided to join you," she said quietly. "I left my previous Trainer for… certain reasons."

"Was it to do with Team Plasma?" Pikachu asked. Snivy didn't say anything but Pikachu gathered that there must have been some bad history between herself and her previous Trainer. Pikachu wondered how Team Plasma had come to the conclusion that Pokémon and humans must be separated into black and white. Most, if not all, Pokémon joined a team willingly and if they really hated captivity that much, well, surely they could leave. That's what Snivy had done, right? A Poké Ball was just a device used to carry a Pokémon about and to register their ID. There was no law saying that they had to stay in it. And even if there was, Pikachu wouldn't have stayed inside his Poké Ball. Oh, no, he liked the fresh outdoors too much to be confined to a little ball thank you very much.

He decided to turn the conversation back to Oshawott. He was currently staring outside of the window as if there was something remarkably interesting to observe. The next minute, he jumped out and vanished from sight. Pikachu sighed. He thought Oshawott had started to become more mature over the past few weeks. He had become quieter and reserved, less inclined to burst out his Poké Ball spontaneously, shyer around a certain Pokémon and more distant from another certain Pokémon. And now all this…

"It's best if we don't follow," said Pikachu after a long time. "I guess he still wants to be alone. This is going to make things difficult when we're back on the road, isn't it?"

"Hopefully not," said Snivy. "Servine and his Trainer should be going their separate ways from us so there should be none of this fighting. Just so that you know, this has been going on since they were at the lab together and it's only been continuing since. And it's got much worse since Servine evolved and Oshawott decided not to evolve. I hope it's a long way off before he decides to evolve into a Serperior…"

"It's been going on that long?" asked Pikachu, surprised. Snivy nodded by way of a response. She had been having words with her brother. They both realised that Oshawott had been bottling up his feelings for an extraordinary length of time. It was surprising that he had managed to stay so easy-going in all that time. He had always seemed confident enough apart from that business in trying to keep his eyes open underwater.

"I need to talk to him and apologise," said Pikachu firmly. "I thought it was something that he had blown completely out of proportion. But I don't think I'll be able to do that at the moment. I suppose I better wait for him to come round in his own time..."

Everybody in the Pokémon Rest Bay suddenly heard a loud cry in the distance. Startled, the entire gang (apart from Servine who had been rudely jolted awake) raced toward the window in a bid to see what was happening. Pikachu got to the front simply because he was the accepted leader; Snivy just managed to glide past everybody much to the annoyance of Emolga.

"Back up! There's a queue here!" she hissed. Snivy promptly ignored her.

"Sweet mother of Mew, what the hell is he doing?" Pikachu muttered to himself.

Oshawott groaned as he picked himself up. Obviously, it was going to take longer to learn Aqua Tail than he thought. If he was to get anywhere, he obviously had to learn some new moves to prove once and for all that he wasn't a weak, little hatchling. But it wasn't going well at all and he was aching all over. There was no way he could concentrate, not with everything playing in his mind over and over again. He hadn't even realised that his Torrent ability had been activated though everybody else had noticed the water rushing around him.

"What if she doesn't even like me that way?" he muttered to himself. "I don't suppose the way I've been acting has helped at all. She probably thinks I'm not interested in her at all. What will I do then? Why do I even feel this way? What's wrong with me?"

He took several deep breaths to calm himself and attempted the move again. His tail began to glow a light blue. A stream of water spiralled around it, weaker than he would have liked. He tried to focus all of his energy on his tail, to make the water spin more powerfully which it did as Torrent kicked in again, almost catching Oshawott off-guard. Now here was the tricky part. He jumped in the air and tried to flip himself around so that his metaphorical opponent would feel the full force of his attack. However, as soon as he was up in the air, he completely lost his sense of balance and ended up pitching forwards straight into his metaphorical opponent, in this case, a sturdy boulder.

"Ouch," Pikachu winced as Oshawott groggily picked himself up. His nose was bleeding. "That has got to hurt."

"What's Oshawott doing?" Axew piped up from the back.

"Apart from trying to learn a new move without any assistance? I have no idea…" Pikachu muttered as he watched Oshawott stem the flow.

"Trying and failing to better himself is he?" said Servine lightly. He hadn't even made a move to get up; he was quite comfortable lounging where he was. Pikachu thought it quite impressive that Servine didn't flinch when Snivy suddenly whipped round and glared at him furiously.

"You stay out of this!" she hissed. "Don't you think you've done enough damage?" Servine blinked with surprise.

"Why, dear sweet sister of mine. You're still defending him? Anybody would think that you're in love with him."

It was fortunate for Snivy that she had her back turned to everybody so that they couldn't suddenly see her turn bright red. In any case, most of them were still preoccupied with what Oshawott was doing. After several more failed attempts, he decided to give up on the move for the time being, completely disheartened. He was fiddling about with the two scalchop pieces he had picked up earlier. An idea unexpectedly took him. He went further away from the building and selected a large, tall tree. He began carving something into it with his broken scalchop but unfortunately for his fellow spying Pokémon, they could not see what it was exactly.

"I guess Show and Tell is over now," Emolga sighed glumly. She was always curious about what the Water-Type was up to in case it benefited her in some way. There were no apples involved and so it wasn't very interesting at all.

Everybody apart from Snivy shifted away now that there was nothing interesting going on. Pikachu also left since there was no way that he could figure out Oshawott at this moment in time and in any case, Axew demanded his attention for whatever reason he was demanding attention for. Oshawott continued to work on his carving completely unaware that he was still being watched. He felt calmer. This was going to be a masterpiece. The fact that he was placing all of his concentration on his work meant that he didn't know that something was creeping up from behind him.

"Get out of the way, Oshawott!" Snivy cried as she leapt from the window.

Startled, Oshawott dropped his scalchop piece and quivered as he saw Snivy running towards him. His instincts suddenly warned him however of the danger that he was currently in and he dodged to one side without thinking. There was a resounding crash where Oshawott had stood. He looked up to see a giant Scolipede glaring at him. Oshawott automatically reached for his scalchop that normally rested on his stomach and cursed when he realised that it still hadn't grown back fully. The Scolipede attacked again with Poison Tail though Oshawott swiftly dodged the move. It clicked its feelers with fury. Oshawott narrowed his eyes.

"Don't come another step closer!" he snarled, standing his ground. "And don't even think about attacking my friend."

The Scolipede blinked with surprise. This Pokémon wasn't speaking as it normally should. Apart from the fact that this Pokémon was desecrating its tree, it was also obviously an outsider. Speaking like that… it was unnatural.

"Get back! I'll deal with this!" Oshawott called out as he launched himself into Aqua Jet. He didn't want Snivy getting hurt since Grass-Types were weak to both Bug-Type and Poison-Types and Scolipede was both of them. And besides… no, he just didn't want her to get hurt. He struck the aggressive Pokémon with his powered-up move, hopefully causing it massive damage. The Scolipede didn't even try to dodge his move. It made a strange sound that Oshawott didn't recognise straight away as laughter. He prepared to launch another Aqua Jet when sickness suddenly overwhelmed him. Now he knew why it didn't bother moving: its ability was Poison Point.

"Typical," Oshawott muttered to himself. "Why couldn't it have been Swarm?" He felt hopelessly idiotic; the battle had barely started and already he was being beaten down by poison. This Pokémon wasn't even trained and it was already thrashing him! No, he would not let this Pokémon beat him! He switched to using Water Gun though the Scolipede responded by using Venoshock. Oshawott was thrown backwards by the force and was smashed against another rock. He was doubled over with pain. Venoshock caused double damage against Pokémon who were already poisoned. His face had taken on a deadly purple hue. Snivy couldn't stay by the side-lines any longer.

"Snivy!" he called out weakly as she launched a Leaf Blade attack against the poisonous Pokémon. She was swifter than Oshawott as the Scolipede found out to its annoyance. Snivy counter-attacked the Scolipede's Poison Tail with her Leaf Blade and quickly sent Leaf Storm in its direction. It staggered backwards and screeched with fury.

_She's just so good, _Oshawott thought, forgetting his earlier temper as he became lost in watching Snivy's battling skills. _How does she do it? I need to get as good as her. _She was at her most attractive when she was battling. He swallowed nervously. The effects were the same as if somebody had used Attract on him except he realised exactly what he was feeling. Oshawott couldn't stop his thoughts running away with him, wonderfully distracting as they were. He threw himself back into battle with another Aqua Jet seeing that he couldn't get any more poisoned.

"**~How dare you enter this forest and violate my tree, you freak!~" **the Scolipede roared at Oshawott. **"~You speak like a human. Do you expect to get away with this because you have the voice of a human? I don't think so! No!~"**

"Anybody would think I ruined a sacred temple," Oshawott muttered, speaking in 'human' purely to annoy the Pokémon.

The Scolipede screeched ear-splittingly loud, sharply lowering both of their defences. Oshawott still charged forwards with a strong Tackle though it didn't appear to do all that much damage. Snivy found that Attract wouldn't work on this Scolipede which might well have possibly been a good thing. Though she would have been easily able to deal with the Scolipede if it was a male, it would have just gone straight for Oshawott instead and she didn't want that.

Oshawott had picked up his broken scalchop and was wielding both pieces as if he was a Dewott. He knew that they were liable to shatter completely at this point but what else had he got to lose? He was able to pull off a rudimentary Razor Shell, blocking the Scolipede as it tried to use Bug Bite on Snivy. If nothing else was to come out of this, at least he knew that he was able to protect Snivy but in the back of his mind, he knew that Servine would still call him out on his actions. His words still echoed in the back of Oshawott's mind.

_You are a stupid, vain, boastful and above all, weak reject!_

Oshawott yelled as he struck the Scolipede with a Torrent-powered Razor Shell that caused the Poison Pokémon to be sent flying backwards with some force. Oshawott was able to parry several of the Scolipede's physical attacks and deftly dodged Venoshock (fortunately so or he definitely would have fainted). Seeing that one of his scalchop halves was crumbling in his very grip, he flung it straight at the Dual-Type, striking its feelers. Snivy was mesmerised by his sudden surge of strength.

Oshawott drew upon his last reserves of energy to pull off Aqua Tail. _I've gotta do this!_ he thought with some desperation. _I gotta do this for Snivy!_ He jumped skywards with his tail glowing brightly and kept the charging Scolipede firmly locked in his sight. When he felt his energy build up to a sufficient point, he whipped the violent flow of water towards his opponent. The water directly crashed into the Pokémon who was consequently stopped in its tracks and flung into the ground.

Oshawott landed somewhat imperfectly and barely managed to stay upright. Shaking with exhaustion, he still managed to wield his weapons however. The Scolipede looked to have finally been knocked out. No, wait, it was getting up again. But this time, it didn't retaliate.

"Had enough?" Oshawott taunted though he was in no position to taunt considering that he was swaying on the spot and panting for breath. "It's still two against one. Go on… get out of here."

The Pokémon angrily clicked its feelers and skulked off into the depths of the forest, promising that if the intruders hadn't cleared off by tomorrow, then there really would be no mercy. It did however; recognise a worthy opponent when it saw one. When it finally vanished from their sight, Oshawott decided that now would be a good time to keel over. Snivy was immediately by his side.

"Snivy… Are you alright?" Oshawott asked first. Snivy was too worried to smile at his own concern. Here he was succumbing to the Scolipede's venom after already having been weakened and he was asking how she was feeling. And Servine didn't think that Oshawott cared…

"I'm fine," she replied quickly. "You, on the other hand, need healing. Come on…"

She lifted Oshawott into an upright position with her vines. Oshawott groaned for two reasons. One was the obvious pain from the poisoning. The other reason… well, she had wrapped her vines around the area where Oshawott's scalchop usually rested and that uncovered area was highly sensitive to the touch of another Pokémon. Did vines usually feel soft? These did. How come he had never noticed before how pleasing they were pressed against his own soft, streamlined fur? If he hadn't been close to fainting, he would have had the opportunity to give it more thought. What he did think however, was to give Snivy the scalchop piece that he had saved. Snivy was unsure at first what he meant by it but she took it anyway. She would later realise the significance behind it since a scalchop was the most important possession any Oshawott would have.

"Snivy… I…" he began. Oshawott seemed to be blushing. Her touch against his body would be returning in his dreams. He resisted the urge to groan again. His heart was hammering violently against his ribcage. He changed what he was about to say. "I… er… thanks."

"It's nothing," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to leave you like that, no matter what Servine thinks of you. You're stronger than you think, Oshawott so just… don't listen to him, OK? And I should be thanking you."

"Huh, why?"

"Well, you were protecting me, weren't you?" she said with a soft smile. "It's not as if it's the first time you've done that even if you've sometimes been put at a disadvantage. You'd do it for other Pokémon too. I know that with my old Trainer, I wouldn't have got another Pokémon doing that for me. So, thank you, Oshawott…"

Oshawott's eyes widened. She really noticed all those times? His mind felt clearer than it had for weeks. He wanted to say the words that he had wanted to say for a long time now. However, he still felt tongue-tied and he knew, he just _knew_, that he would make a complete hash of it.

"You're… you're welcome," he mumbled, feeling his face go hot with embarrassment.

"Just answer me this one question, Oshawott."

"Uhhh, sure, anything."

"Why have you been avoiding everybody this week?" she asked quietly. "Why have you been avoiding me? I would have tried to talk to you, to help you in some way but that was somewhat… difficult."

"I… I…" Oshawott stuttered. He didn't seem to realise that Snivy had her arms around him now. To help keep him standing obviously. She didn't even seem to realise what she was doing.

"I was ashamed," he said finally. "I just felt that… well, I just wasn't good enough." _That I wasn't good enough for you, _he added privately. _Because I don't feel that I'm worthy enough to be your mate._ "I… I'm not even sure what I was thinking all that time. That's not too unusual I guess." He laughed weakly even as he felt his head pounding horribly. "I guess I felt that no-one… understood what I was feeling and I just couldn't say anything. Except to you now."

"Oshawott…" she said gently.

"Mmm…" he mumbled as everything began to swirl into blackness.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Pokémon Rest Bay, Pikachu's ears twitched. He was sure he heard a commotion outside but Axew was plying him with questions about nothing in particular. Until the door opened that is in which everybody suddenly reverted back to Poké Speak as if somebody had just flicked a switch.

"Time for your final round of medicine!" said Nurse Joy cheerfully. Servine immediately got up since the Audino was with her. Pikachu took the time to ponder why all Nurse Joys looked exactly the same. The Unova ones had a different appearance to the ones he had met in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh but the Unova ones looked completely identical to each other as the Nurse Joys had in the other regions. It was a complete and utter mystery. At least there weren't multiple amounts of Ash. He was there with Cilan and Iris. No Trip he noticed. Didn't he care for his Servine? He knew that their Trainers were here since they wished to keep a watchful eye on their Pokémon.

"Hey, where's Oshawott?" said Ash as he helped round up their Pokémon. "I hope he hasn't disappeared again. Why does he keep doing that?" Though Ash, to put it politely, could be somewhat slow on the uptake in certain areas, he was usually finely-tuned to what his Pokémon were doing or otherwise feeling. It would be rather more complicated this time round though as Oshawott retreated back inside himself again after that business with Servine. "Snivy's gone too…"

He heard his Grass-Type Pokémon answer fretfully from outside. Somehow, Pikachu knew what had happened before he even saw Oshawott. Ash's cry of alarm confirmed it. He carried in Oshawott who had by now, fallen unconscious. His face showed the dangerous purple hue of severe poisoning. Snivy followed and if anybody tried to stop her, then they wouldn't know what had hit them, including Servine. He wasn't concerned. Why should he be? Oshawott wasn't a teammate of his and he was very glad that this was the case. He had no idea what Snivy saw in Oshawott since… well, what skills did he have? None at all of course. Just because they were technically compatible, that was no reason to get together.

"I wonder what Pokémon attacked Oshawott…" Ash sighed as he let Audino wheel away his Pokémon to the Intensive Care Unit (Servine was annoyed by this; why couldn't Nurse Joy have done that?). Snivy almost cried out that it was a Scolipede. He had been poisoned. Wasn't it obvious? How many other Poison-Type Pokémon where there nearby? She stopped herself just in time though. She didn't want to be the one to make the situation more complicated than it already was. Instead, she kept quiet and reluctantly accepted the bitter-tasting medicine from Nurse Joy before dashing off to find Oshawott.

"Wow, Snivy's sure protective!" Iris commented seeing the Grass-Type leave immediately without so much as giving a glance to anybody else. "I've never seen her like that before!" Axew would have followed out of sheer curiosity if he wasn't currently being held by Iris. Emolga found this information to be of some considerable interest and grinned wickedly. There was some fun to be had out of this after all.

"Oshawott and Snivy are teammates so I suppose it's only natural," said Cilan. "It looks serious but I'm sure Oshawott will be healed in next to no time. If all goes well, we should be able to leave by tomorrow. Professor Juniper is happy that there's nothing untoward to our Pokémon anyway."

Pikachu left the Trainers talking and slipped out of the window before anybody noticed otherwise they would have dragged him back since Oshawott had been injured out here. Normally, he would never have considered this but he had to admit himself that he was burning with as much curiosity as Axew was. What was it that Oshawott had been carving? After all, that was the reason why he had been outside and consequently got attacked by a wild Pokémon. He went to look at it.

Snivy's image looked back at him. Pikachu raised an eyebrow. Who knew that Oshawott was such an artist? That confirmed the Water-Type's feelings at any rate. The question was though and he suspected that the answer was no: had Snivy seen this? Perhaps not. It did however; answer a question that Pikachu had been pondering for the other Pokémon's sake. He smiled. It looked like Oshawott's female Pokémon chasing days were finally over. There was only one Pokémon he had eyes for now. He was happy for them.

Not everybody would be happy for them, however.


	4. The Pains of Attraction

**Apologies for the wait! I've been busy revising and getting worried over exams. Also, I got myself into a tangle while writing this but it's sorted now. :D Uploaded just in time for my birthday.**

**By the way, you can probably guess who my favourite Pokémon is but out of interest, which is your favourite Pokémon?**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Pains of Attraction**

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I'm _so_ sorry, Ash!"

"Why is that every time you bump into us, I end up getting drenched?"

Oshawott watched with amusement as Ash and Pikachu dried themselves off. This apparently happened every time although this was the first time that Oshawott had witnessed it since he had decided to stay out of his Poké Ball. No matter how much Ash had cajoled him to return to the Poké Ball, Oshawott had steadfastly refused to go back into it. Pikachu couldn't exactly tell him otherwise since he never travelled about in his Poké Ball which was back at Professor Oak's Lab in any case. Also, stubbornness seemed to run in the Pokémon that Ash caught since he was a stubborn Trainer himself and Oshawott was only too happy to stick with the stubbornness trait. He had had enough of being cooped up inside that thing; he wanted to experience the refreshing outdoors with his own eyes, feel real grass beneath his feet and feel the wind rush past him. And of course, he was more privy to entertaining events like this.

"Well, I did apologise!" Bianca huffed. "You just don't get out of the way fast enough!"

Emboar wearily glanced at his airhead Trainer before continuing the important business of relaxing in the grass. He acknowledged Oshawott who gave him a polite nod in return. He knew Emboar as a Tepig back at the Pokémon Lab and had wondered for some time which Trainer had picked him before said Trainer had quite literally bumped into his. Emboar was more or less used to his Trainer's excitable behaviour having picked it up himself but there were times when she needed to simmer down, so to speak.

"Have you heard of the Pokémon Mystery Tournament near Mistralton City?" she cried, obviously thrilled. "It's going to be, like, completely amazing! I think we should all enter and give it a shot! Ooh, I wonder which Pokémon I should choose to enter? Or what moves I should use? Or even what sort of tournament is it going to be? A double battle or maybe even a triple battle? Or maybe certain types of Pokémon only? Do you think we should get going now? I don't want to miss it!"

"Relax, Bianca," said Cilan as he cooked his latest masterpiece. Oshawott was being tormented by the delicious smells wafting over in his direction. He crept towards the cooking pot, Cilan's pride and joy. "The tournament isn't taking place until the day after tomorrow. So we've got plenty of time to get there and it isn't even all that far off. And since we don't know what sort of tournament it will be, you can't really prepare for it, like being given a list of secret ingredients and making an untried 5-star recipe from it!"

"It sounds like fun!" said Iris even though they already knew about it. That was one of the reasons as to why they were travelling in this area again. "I know our Pokémon would love it; it would be a good distraction. Your next Gym battle isn't going anywhere after all, Ash! How about it, Axew? We might even meet other Dragon-Type Pokémon there!" Axew nodded in happy agreement. Of course, that was how he responded to most things; he was only a child after all.

"Sure!" Ash agreed as he and Pikachu were finally dry again. "It might be good practice for our Pokémon anyway." Oshawott sniffed the cooking ingredients. His mouth was watering. They smelt deliciously hot and spicy. Emboar grinned when he saw what Oshawott was doing. "Just three more badges and I'll have all the badges from the Unova region, right buddy?" Ash had started his Unova journey like he had with his previous journeys, with the expectation of getting eight badges. However, during that process, the trio had found out that three more gyms had recently opened and Ash was determined to get the badges from all of them, reasoning that the more badges he had, the more prepared he would be for the Unova League which wasn't due for another couple of months. He had already defeated Roxie at the newly-opened Virbank Gym; it had certainly helped that Tepig had evolved into a Pignite prior to that brutal Gym battle. Now he just needed to defeat Cheren in Aspertia City, a new Normal-Type Gym Leader (Normal again, but a Gym battle was a Gym battle), Marlon the Water-Type Master and of course, Drayden since Ash wasn't able to battle him when he wanted to. It would also be one over Trip. That was the best bonus of the lot.

"That's why you shouldn't take anything before I've prepared them, Oshawott," Cilan lightly chided as Oshawott ran about with his mouth on fire. Emboar sniggered. Fire-Types had no problem dealing with the extreme heat of certain chillies and peppers but other Pokémon… not quite as well. You would think, however, that a Water Pokémon wouldn't have it so bad since they could simply cool their insides down with Water Gun. He sniggered even more as Oshawott threw himself into the river that Pikachu and Ash had just been previously knocked into. The Water-Type nearly said something that he ought not to, in Pokémon or human.

"That's just so cute!" Bianca squealed as Oshawott pulled himself off and shook himself dry. She could never quite get over the cuteness of certain Pokémon like Oshawott. This caused the Water Pokémon to smile. Everybody knew that his species was unbelievably cute. "Hey," she said, suddenly noticing the lack of a certain object. "What happened to Oshawott's scalchop? It's smaller than I remember it…"

"It's kind of a long story, Bianca," said Ash with a sigh. "I'll tell you about it over dinner but the fact is that it got broken when we were doing some investigating so it's just starting to grow back now."

"Well I hope it's ready in time for the Tournament," said Bianca. "Though of course, if we got pitted together I certainly wouldn't be taking it easy on you no matter what! Oh, that reminds me; I should let my other Pokémon out for a bit of fresh air."

Bianca released Minccino and Escavalier from their Poké Balls as well as two new Pokémon she had acquired: Lucario and Swablu, one of whom was admirably muscular and the other was quite simply fluffy and adorable. The Pokémon Pikachu and Ash had met in other regions now seemed to be showing up here too allowing Ash to finally ply Iris with "What? You don't know what Pokémon that is? Now who's the kid?" It was sweet irony after so long of putting up with the childish remarks of _"You're such a kid!"_ if he didn't know a Pokémon that he had never met before.

Predictably, Oshawott was first to the table when Cilan announced that lunch was ready, he was even quicker than his Trainer. He soon forgot his appetite however when their Trainers released their Pokémon and Snivy was within his line of sight. What was food compared to seeing Snivy?

Pikachu waved a hand in front of Oshawott's face seeing where he was looking. Oshawott didn't even notice that Pignite was starting to tuck into Oshawott's bowl first as payback for all those times that Oshawott had sneaked titbits out of the Fire-Type's bowl. When he did notice, he merely pushed the bowl over and Pignite was not about to question this unusual action.

"Hey, love-Pidgey, dinner's served you know," Pikachu whispered, risking talking to get the Pokémon's attention while their Trainers were distracted by Bianca chatting at length about the merits of her new Pokémon. He also knew Oshawott's fondness for Cilan's cooking and that he would never dare to miss it. With one exception apparently.

"Yeah, I'll get it whenever," said Oshawott dreamily. It was unfortunate that he couldn't talk to Snivy at the moment, not with everybody else about. He wanted them to just be by themselves where they would not be disturbed. He was right when he knew that his dreams would be haunted the night before they took their leave of the Pokémon Centre. A small whimper of want escaped from his throat causing Pikachu to raise an eyebrow; even Oshawott surprised himself momentarily. It was just as well it wasn't mating season. Not that Oshawott had any sort of experience in this area but nevertheless, it was just as well it wasn't mating season. It was also just as well that Servine didn't know the true extent of Oshawott's feelings for Snivy.

Snivy, perched on her usual comfortable rock, was engaged in conversation with Unfezant so she didn't notice Oshawott. That was fine since it allowed Oshawott to gaze upon her without completely embarrassing himself. He had never felt anything like this when he was chasing other females in what seemed like a long time ago. What had he been chasing them for anyway? It must have been something to do with their looks. No, Oshawott had realised that you couldn't use looks to form the basis of a relationship alone. He had realised that when Emolga had made him fetch apples for the umpteenth time…

Speaking of Emolga, Oshawott gave her a quick cursory glance. She had finished her meal and was currently snacking on an apple; goodness knows where from since Oshawott couldn't see any apple trees in the vicinity. She didn't appear to have twigged yet about Oshawott's affections for Snivy. Either that or she was very good at hiding exactly what she was thinking. This could only be a good thing for nobody could have failed to notice that Snivy had disappeared while Oshawott was being treated for his severe poisoning. Oshawott knew that she had remained by his bedside all night since he had woke up first to see Snivy curled up close to him. Very close to him. Until they were both ready though, Oshawott had shifted away from her before Nurse Joy had come to inspect him, saving unwanted embarrassment for the pair of them since word was bound to get about.

"**~Minccino! Minccino!~"**

Oshawott didn't respond straight away as he was once again too lost in his own thoughts. He hadn't even realised that Pignite had happily finished his meal for him, unable to believe his luck. He was wondering what to say to Snivy when he got the chance to talk to her alone.

"**~Minccino! Minccino!~"**

How to declare his love properly without completely messing it up… that was going to be a difficult task. He wasn't going to do it like he did all those other times. No, this was going to be straight from the heart and it was going to be special, worthy of Snivy. However, he still felt as awkward as he had done when he had first hit adolescence. If they had been granted their ability to talk a few months before, he would have noticed how his voice had broken in that time. He had also grown more lithe and muscular as well as the specks on his cheeks becoming more visible, a sign of maturity in his species. Still, using adolescence as his reason for falling in love with every female he met didn't stand up anymore. He breathed heavily. Trying to prepare for that moment would probably only make him more nervous anyway.

He soon had his attention diverted from his private musings when Minccino slapped him with his tail causing him to be flung forward in surprise. He stood up to see the neatness fanatic grinning at him.

"**~Osha?~"** said Oshawott annoyed. He thought it best to stick with Poké Speak for now even though their Trainers weren't paying any attention to them. Besides, he might have somewhat startled the cleanliness freak by speaking human.

"**~Long time no see, Oshawott~"** said Minccino with a smirk (with his words translated for your convenience). **"~I thought I'd get your attention since I want to make it known to you that I want to battle you again. I mean, when was the last time we battled, eh? Since you were my first opponent belonging to a Trainer apart from Emboar of course, I've just got to cream you again! With Thunderbolt of course since that will be all the sweeter. And I needed to snap you out of it. Oh, yeah, and you look all washed up too, you know?~"**

Oshawott looked down and realised that he was still damp from his dousing in the river. He gave a smirk back. **"~That just shows I'm clean. Unlike you. Did you know that you've got a huge dirty splotch on your fur?~"** Oshawott laughed as the suddenly panicked Minccino checked for dirt on his person. It worked every single time. Minccino glowered at him before giving his tail a good clean anyway.

"**~Still like that Emolga?~"** Minccino asked unexpectedly causing Oshawott to flinch. **"~I still find it funny that you jumped into the path of Attract since you were that in love with her.~"**

"**~That wasn't love; that was only a crush…~" **Oshawott mumbled surprising the Normal-Type.** "~I know what love is now though. I…~" **He was quite unable to stop himself from turning red. He hoped that nobody else was listening in, especially Emolga considering she would take what he just said as a massive insult. Fortunately, his luck was in as Bianca was busy cooing over Emolga's cuteness.

Minccino knew that he wasn't going to get another word out of Oshawott so he bounded over to Bianca seeing that she had finished her meal and quickly grabbed her attention, pointing out Oshawott and making his desire for a battle quite clear. Oshawott suddenly had his misgivings though. Unless matters had changed drastically, Minccino was still a hell of a lot faster than he was so Oshawott couldn't reliably use speed in place of his lack of a scalchop. He toyed thoughtfully about with the shell; it required a good tug to get it off since he hadn't yet removed it. At this moment in time, he couldn't simply take off and place back on his stomach in the middle of battle. He would have to keep a tighter grip on it this time…

"My dear little Minccino wants to have a battle with your Oshawott, Ash!" cried Bianca excitedly. "And how can I resist such cuteness? Oh, please say you'll have a battle with us! Pretty, pretty please?"

"Well, if Oshawott's fine with it, then I'd be happy to," said Ash. A battle would probably be a good thing. He didn't know if Cilan and Iris had noticed but their Pokémon had been acting somewhat differently lately. Even though Iris in particular thought of him as a world-class idiot, he knew changes in his Pokémon when he saw them. Pikachu seemed to be less vocal of late and spent more time with the other Pokémon. His usual _'Pikapi!'_ sounded somewhat… forced. The other Pokémon were the same in that area as well as being very careful, as if expecting a slip-up of some sorts. And as for Oshawott, well, that was a different matter entirely. He wasn't sure if he could ever fully understand his quirky Water-Type.

Oshawott deliberated, weighing up his chances. He did not want to fail spectacularly in front of his heart's delight knowing that Minccino had at least one move that would be super effective against him. He heard cries of encouragement from his teammates but he automatically turned to face Snivy. She gave Oshawott a smile and an encouraging nod. Oshawott thought he would have fainted there and then with unexplained joy but he managed to pull himself together and give a confirmation nod to his Trainer. Oshawott settled into a battle stance and kept his scalchop close to his body. It was a smaller shield than he would have liked but it would have to do.

Cilan was of course refereeing while Iris bemoaned the fact that she rarely got the chance to battle with anybody apart from that infuriating Georgia. Emolga wondered whether she should watch the battle and answered herself by selecting another apple and crunching it noisily whilst everybody else would cheer for their teammate. Snivy was also obviously observing the battle. Much to her surprise, she felt her heart pound faster than normal as she watched Oshawott block Minccino's Thunderbolt with his small scalchop and retaliate with a strong Tackle. He followed it up with Razor Shell and breathed a sigh of relief seeing that his shell was still holding. She tightly gripped the scalchop piece that Oshawott had given her.

"Token of affection, is it?"

Snivy nearly jumped when she realised that Unfezant was talking to her again and that she was looking at what Snivy was holding. Bird Pokémon did have sharp eyes after all so she had actually noticed it earlier. Snivy nodded, faintly embarrassed. It was far easier dealing with the feelings of other Pokémon than it was her own; that was why she always maintained a cool composure. And now that Unfezant was looking curiously at her, she would be expected to give a reason to her having a 'token of affection'.

"I'm surprised," said Unfezant, keeping her voice low as to not be overheard. There was little danger of that though as everybody else was too engaged in the ensuing battle. "I didn't think you'd be interested in Oshawott what with him always chasing the other ladies."

"That was then," said Snivy, wishing that there was some better way to explain her reasons. "And I wasn't interested then. He doesn't do that now anyway. But there's more to Oshawott than that. He's-"

Snivy faltered. She wasn't sure how to explain since she hadn't told anybody about her feelings. How to put feelings into words? That was an area she wasn't well practiced in at the best of times and since she kept herself to herself most of the time, that only made it the more harder. She felt uncomfortable; that was unfamiliar. But a large part of her wanted to tell Unfezant exactly what it was about Oshawott that attracted her so; to prove that Oshawott wasn't the clumsy idiot that he was generally known as. Well, he could be clumsy and he could be an idiot but that was part of his charm…

"I won't laugh," said Unfezant seriously. "And I won't tell either if you don't want me to. Give me a little credit, I'm not Emolga."

Snivy relaxed a little. "I guess not." Giving Emolga a secret would be like walking under a thunderstorm wearing nothing but metal; it only drew trouble to yourself. It looked like she was still eating apples and occasionally glancing up to see the action. Her eyes were narrowed but then, Oshawott had not been giving her the attention she so craved. She gave a cool glance towards Snivy before turning away again. Snivy ignored her and gazed upon Oshawott instead.

Oshawott was using Water Gun against Minccino before switching to Aqua Jet. Despite Minccino's speed, he couldn't quite avoid the Water-Type's strong attack. That was his fourth move but he had learnt a fifth one recently and he hadn't forgotten any of his older moves…

"It's obvious that you like him," Unfezant smiled seeing where Snivy's gaze led to. "You've barely been able to take your eyes off him. It's more obvious than you think. At least, it is me anyway and Pikachu no doubt. I don't think anybody else has noticed so you're quite safe there."

_Unless Emolga has of course_, Snivy thought to herself. But then, it couldn't be kept a secret forever. The ability to talk would not be kept a secret forever either no matter how hard they tried to keep it. Sooner or later, all secrets would be brought out in the open. Snivy decided that there was little point in hiding the first secret much longer. At least to Unfezant anyway since Snivy knew that the Bird Pokémon wouldn't squawk.

"The others might see Oshawott as an idiot but I don't," she whispered. She was dying of embarrassment inside. "There have been plenty of times where Oshawott's protected our teammates for example. Remember when Oshawott saved Pikachu and Axew from Team Rocket? Pikachu said he just came charging in there and fought them off."

"Oh, yes," Unfezant mused. She remembered it well for she had been a Pidove back in the early days. "He wasn't even part of the team then. But neither were you."

"No, but Pikachu told me all about that after Oshawott protected Axew and Emolga from those Watchog before getting knocked out by the Simisear. I doubt Emolga wishes to remember that," Snivy snorted. "But anyway, Oshawott's really quite caring. He doesn't give up either. Not completely anyway. You saw that he was learning Aqua Tail a few days ago. Well, he mastered it to protect me."

As if to prove Snivy's point, Oshawott suddenly launched his Aqua Tail attack against Minccino, much to the surprise of Ash, Iris, Cilan and of course, Minccino. What was even more surprising was that Oshawott had apparently not forgotten any of his earlier moves. It was a mystery as to why Pokémon forgot moves that looked easy enough to handle to make way for newer ones to begin with; maybe it was so that the Pokémon could devote more energy to their new, often more powerful moves. In any case, Oshawott was using five moves in his battle against Minccino. He gave a proud grin upon Ash's euphoria: was that enough proof to show that he wasn't weak?

Everybody apart from Snivy looked just as surprised. They wondered if they could do the same thing. Upon this knowledge, Pikachu immediately resolved to learn Volt Tackle again only to find that there it was, in the back of his mind, as if he had never forgot a move he had been using for goodness how long before Electro Ball. It looked like there was more to their misadventure than met the eye…

"It looks like Oshawott's just done everyone a favour," Snivy remarked, feeling pleased for the Water-Type. "Although, I suppose Servine will probably find out the same thing if he hasn't done already."

"You two don't seem to get along. Why is that?" Unfezant asked delicately.

"It's a long story," she sighed. "Though it certainly doesn't help the way he acts towards Oshawott. And Oshawott doesn't deserve that," she said more to herself than Unfezant. "He's charming, he has his quirks and he's…"

"Cute?" Unfezant inputted.

"Well…" She turned red again. Oshawott seemed to have that effect on her.

"Oh, just admit already!" a voice hissed from behind them. "You find him cute and marvellous even though he's a complete twit especially when's he's chasing someone like a floating ice-cream cone and you want to have his Eggs! It's obvious enough to me!"

Emolga swooped in between the pair and glared at Snivy. Snivy regarded the Dual-Type coolly. Something told Unfezant that this was one conversation that she did not want to get involved in. She fluttered over to the rest of their teammates leaving the perpetual rivals to cook each other with flaming words. Snivy and Emolga didn't even notice Oshawott striking down Minccino with his scalchop thus ending the battle. He was certainly proud of himself when Bianca complimented him on his battling skills despite her being the loser.

"I don't suppose a private conversation has any meaning in your dictionary does it?" said Snivy. She avoided her last part of Emolga's comment since it would be a terrible idea to even mention it. "Nor does the fact that Oshawott has saved you more than once. It's funny that you never complained when you made him fetch apples for you each and every time since you're too lazy to do it yourself."

"He never objected," Emolga smirked. "Since he was head over heels in love with me and he never even gave you a second glance. In fact, if I asked him after this battle, he would still do as I say."

"Oh, and I don't suppose spamming Attract has anything to do with it?" Snivy said coldly. "You never care about what danger you put him in, as long as you get what you want. You keep treating him like a tool and throwing him aside when it suits you best. Though I don't think that works anymore does it? I think Attract has somewhat lost its effect."

"My moves were off at that time," Emolga said airily although she hated being reminded of this fact. "But I think they're back to normal now and Oshawott just won't be able to resist me! Because what would he see in you anyway, Miss Ice Queen?" she sneered. "You're so cold and distant that a Cryogonal is a lot warmer than you! All you're interested in is showing off to everybody how good you are at battling even though you've lost many battles and I have not lost a one."

"And I'm sure that you have many qualities that Oshawott would be interested in. Greed, laziness and selfishness. What an excellent combination you have!" Snivy snapped. "You've said before that you have no interest in Oshawott so why on earth would you want to take him?"

"Why do you think?" said Emolga with a wicked smile. "So that you can't have him."

Snivy had her vines out. She was prepared to take out Emolga in one fell swoop.

"You don't even know the meaning of love," she hissed. "You just play with the affections of others and then dump them once they've served your purpose. Especially Oshawott. You don't even care if you humiliate him for no reason in front of everybody else! Do you think that it's just a game? You've only gotten away with it for so long because your Trainer hasn't noticed it and the others, goodness knows why, are willing to forgive you. Well, I've had enough of your behaviour towards them and my Oshawott." Emolga laughed. Snivy would have attacked her there and then if she didn't suddenly speak.

"_Your_ Oshawott? That's rich! So you're saying that he belongs to you? You hypocrite. I wonder what he has to say about all of this? What makes you think that he even likes you? He's probably just desperate for attention as per usual and since there isn't anything cute about at the moment, he'll just have to make do with you."

"Wh-what are you guys talking about?" said Oshawott nervously. He wandered over to the pair seeing that they did not normally talk to each other unless they were having a heated argument, which by the sounds of it, they were having one. His delight at having won the battle against Minccino was quickly beginning to fade. "WHOA!"

Emolga had suddenly used Attract on him and the pink, swirling hearts crashed into Oshawott before sinking into his body which then glowed a light pink colour. He swayed on the spot and trembled as if trying to resist something as his heart began beating much faster. His eyes were closed and a large pink heart appeared out of nowhere. Eventually, he stopped swaying and opened his eyes. There were no pink hearts there. Emolga was outraged.

"What did you do that for?" cried Oshawott angrily.

"I think she was trying to prove a point," said Snivy, barely hiding her smirk. "Unfortunately for her though, that point just failed." It proved another point however: if a Pokémon was genuinely in love with someone, then Attract would not have an effect on them. If the object of their affections used Attract on them however…

"So that's how it is, is it?" Emolga fumed. So much for her source of entertainment. "And to think, you fell for Attract so easily before. You actually helped me out back then but now, huh, you won't do a thing."

Looking around in case their Trainers were thinking of making a return (it seemed that they had not noticed Emolga's spontaneous use of Attract), Oshawott leaned in and whispered: "Look, when I first saw you, I thought you were cute, OK? I admit it. And then I got to know you and well… my impression changed. It wasn't a good thing. If you really wanted me to help you with things, then all you had to do was ask. But…" Oshawott turned away and sighed. "Do you know how much of an idiot I felt after you kept using Attract on me? A pretty big one let me tell you. And half of the time, I didn't even realise what was going on until I snapped out of it. I didn't know if you liked me or if you were just playing about with me. How was I supposed to react? I suppose that's why I did a lot of stupid things like getting food from a Druddigon." He shuddered at the memory. That had been one of the worst days of his life apart from getting rejected by a prospective Trainer for the 18th time. "No, I decided that you weren't going to do that to me any longer. It just wasn't worth it. And then I… I-I… I fell in love."

Oshawott was glad that they couldn't see his blushes. He wasn't even sure why he was saying all of this. Perhaps it was for the best; to stop any future troubles between them and to keep the peace. When Emolga and Snivy weren't clashing over certain issues, they could actually work quite well together.

"Emolga, I would be happy if we could just be friends, OK?" said Oshawott quietly. "I'm willing to put all of this behind me providing that you do the same. Because I think that you can be a friend but… I don't know how to put this any other way but I don't love you."

So she no longer had Oshawott's affection then? Emolga wasn't sure how to react to that. She didn't love him per se but perhaps… there was affection for him deep down. OK, perhaps her treatment of him wasn't exactly the best but still, to hear Oshawott say those words knocked her. It looked like her rival had won out over her at long last. And that was not something she took to kindly.

"So how about it?" Oshawott asked, turning around to face Emolga. He gave a small smile. "If you promise not to use Attract on me anymore and that you pull your weight as much as the rest of us, can we be friends?"

Emolga looked like she was thinking about it. She didn't appear to be angry anyway. Oshawott relaxed. That would be one less problem to deal with when he finally got a relationship with Snivy.

Without warning, Emolga suddenly struck Oshawott with a powered-up Discharge, the strength of which violently threw Oshawott backwards into the earth and almost knocked him out. Snivy immediately used Leaf Blade on her and then began a full-on fight.

_Well, that could have gone better,_ Oshawott thought as he dragged himself upright. He was disappointed but he wasn't surprised. He struggled to move; he found that he was paralysed. He saw Emolga and Snivy use their most powerful moves against each other. Emolga scored a critical-hit with Aerial Ace but Snivy merely picked herself up and retaliated with Leaf Blade again. _Oh, no, _he groaned inwardly._ They can't fight here! What if they lose control and give us away?_

Oshawott was about to try and stop them when he noticed something in the distance. It was only there for a split-second and it vanished as soon as it appeared. Oshawott suddenly felt very uneasy. It had definitely been a human. Could it have been…? Oshawott found himself trembling with fear. He did not want to be reminded of that day…

"Whoa! What's going on?" Ash cried seeing that Snivy and Emolga were, for lack of a better term, brawling with each other. He just about avoided a few of Snivy's sharp leaves. "Snivy! Cut it out!"

"Emolga! Stop fighting this instant!" Iris shrieked. She had to dodge to one side to avoid Emolga's sudden electrical attack that had veered off course.

"Maybe this should be settled with a proper battle?" Bianca suggested seeing the dagger look that Snivy and Emolga gave each other. "I wonder what the problem is?"

_Me,_ thought Oshawott miserably. _They're fighting over me. _There was a difference though. Emolga was fighting for her pride. Snivy was fighting _for _her Oshawott. He found himself touched.

They weren't paying a blind bit of attention to their Trainers or to the Pokémon who had crowded round wondering what the hell was going on. Snivy used her vines to swing Emolga into a tree before following up with Leaf Storm. Emolga took considerable damage though it still wasn't enough to defeat her. Emolga used Discharge though due to her rage, not all of the bolts hit Snivy and Oshawott considered himself lucky that he had his scalchop up just in time. Snivy then surprised Emolga by forcibly slamming into her. It was certainly a good thing to know a move that would at least damage Emolga more than her usual Grass-Type moves. As far as Oshawott was concerned, even that was graceful. He was fixated upon her. Minccino gave Oshawott a curious look. Oshawott noticed and sighed. He had no choice but to barge in the battle, never mind Paralysis.

"**~OSHAWOTT!~OSHAWOTT!~"**

"Oshawott?" said Ash curiously. He and Iris were just going to return their Pokémon to their Poké Balls. Emolga and Snivy stopped battling since the Water-Type had ran between them and he was weak to both Electric and Grass-Type moves. It was proving difficult for Oshawott to find his words when they were surrounded by the other Pokémon. Also, it was becoming more natural for the Pokémon to use 'human talk' which meant that they had seriously think about what they were saying before they said it, hence Ash's suspicions when their Pokémon previously had no problems in communicating with each other.

_I wonder if something really did happen at the Plasma Lab, _Ash wondered._ Something that Professor Juniper couldn't find out. I need to ask Iris and Cilan about this._

Whatever it was that Oshawott was saying, it seemed that he was able to calm them down, albeit rather slowly. He looked quite distressed, especially as he tried to get everybody to look in a certain direction. Ash gave him a puzzled look. He couldn't always tell what Pikachu was trying to tell him via mime never mind Oshawott and it didn't help that the Water-Type looked rather confused himself. He was making out that whatever he saw was some kind of monster that grabbed things. At least, that was the impression that the Trainers got.

"So you're saying you saw something but you're not sure what it was?" Ash suggested.

Oshawott felt like hitting his head against a tree. This was so frustrating. Why did they have to hide the fact they could talk? Except Oshawott knew the answer to that one. That was why he was in deep anguish. He wondered if they had been constantly tracked ever since they left the Plasma Laboratory.

"Well, whatever it was, I can't see anything. I think it's gone now," said Ash looking somewhat relieved. "It's probably nothing to worry about." Oshawott heaved another sigh. It was something to worry about. Or perhaps he was just being paranoid…

"We better get going," Cilan reminded them. "We might as well make our way over to Mistralton now. Hopefully, we won't encounter any troubles while we're over there." He began packing up their dinner equipment.

"You're right," said Ash as he prepared to return the Pokémon to their Poké Balls. Oshawott whimpered as Snivy was suddenly whisked away by a beam of red light. At this rate, he was never going to get the chance to talk to her. Emolga gave him quite the glare before she too was whisked away. Oshawott saw his Trainer take out his Poké Ball and he immediately responded by having his scalchop at the ready.

"Why won't you go back in?" Ash asked with some exasperation. "You were fine with it before."

Oshawott wouldn't answer. He couldn't answer. However, he had another reason to stay out now and that was to keep an eye out for everybody. Even if he didn't quite get on with Pokémon like Emolga, there was no way he was about to let anything happen to them and when he considered Snivy's safety to be at stake, there was no chance of him being kept inside that Poké Ball.

He strode resolutely ahead leaving behind one bunch of confused Trainers. Pikachu's tail twitched. He was worried too, listening to Oshawott's garbled warning. But there was little they could do about it except to keep their wits about them. He glanced about the clearing, expecting somebody to be hidden behind a tree on the outskirts. There was nobody. Nobody at all. He relaxed.

Perhaps though, he should have looked up at the sky too.

* * *

"Well… that was undoubtedly interesting."

**"~WOBBUFFET!~"**

Jessie and James packed away their sound equipment in a hidden compartment of the Meowth Air Balloon, their pride and joy. Speaking of Meowth, he was still gripping the edge of the basket, apparently in a deep state of shock.

"They… can… talk," he whispered. "The twerps' Pokémon can talk. I'm supposed t'be the only Pokémon that can talk! It ain't right! They never talked before and it ain't as if we haven't spied on dem before so why are they doin' it now?!"

"That Snivy seems to like the Oshawott very much," said James thoughtfully. "I think it's rather sweet."

"Who cares?!" Meowth cried. "Somethin' must have happened for dem to be able to talk! They haven't learned it the way I have otherwise they'd be perfectly fine wid da whole idea! Ya don't what this means t'me! An' you can shut it, punch-bag!" Meowth growled as Wobbuffet snickered. Team Rocket had decided to bring back their old Pokémon since they now saw others in the Unova region using Pokémon from the likes of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. It was good to be back in the old ways.

"Just think how they will be even more valuable to the Boss!" said Jessie brightly. "Pikachu will certainly be even more valuable now but now the others are definitely worth catching!"

"We gotta find out what the heck is goin' on!" Meowth moaned. "Maybe it's to do wid dat other Team, Team Plasma! Yeah, I bet they're behind dis! That's why we came to dis region in da place!"

"But why would they want to make Pokémon talk?" James asked. "I have no objection to that though," he added as he cuddled Mime Jr. Unfortunately, Carnivine and Cacnea decided that they too wanted a cuddle.

"Well, if it's Team Plasma," said Jessie over James's screams. "We must get hold of that technology for the good of Team Rocket! We can't let them grab all the glory before we do!"

"I tell ya," Meowth sighed as he watched the twerps make their way to the next city. "They've got a reason for doin' this. But I bet ya dollars to donuts that it ain't a good one."


	5. Communication

**Phew, been rather busy of late so I've had little chance to work on this (and other times, you get sick of the computer when you've been doing countless assignments on it). Thanks for the heads-up by the way, jakeroo123! I'm not sure if I knew that there seems to be no limit on their moves in the anime or whether I just forgot. However, having already wrote it, I'll stick to the notion that there usually is a limit on their moves. And at least I've got this up a month before my exams. OK, that's enough talking, on with the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Communication**

Everybody had fallen asleep pretty quickly that night although none of them were aware that they had a vigilant Oshawott looking out for them. If he was correct in what he had seen earlier, then there was no way that Oshawott would be able to get a single wink of sleep. Even so, he was fighting a losing battle against tiredness as he watched out for any possible intruders that could attack their camp. Every slight movement, every slight rustle of a tree, brought Oshawott out of his weary state and caused him to wield his scalchop as if his life depended on it. Well, for all he knew, it might well have done. He was half-expecting intruders to pop out at any moment.

He saw a Zubat flutter above their heads. Oshawott held out his scalchop and used Focus Energy, a move that he had only just acquired that night after some serious concentration on the problems they now had. If it was a Team Plasma spy or something, then he would be able to knock it out with one Critical Hit. However, it didn't take any notice of the Water-Type and flew on before disappearing into the night sky. Oshawott only let himself relax once he was sure that the surrounding area was empty of those that he considered a threat to their group. He cast a gaze back onto his friends.

Looking at Snivy, as Oshawott was doing now (how she slept peacefully); he was reminded of a particular day back in the lab. He had been quite a young Oshawott back then, most likely just out of the hatchling stage and he was keen to meet a Trainer that would be his friend for life. The Tepig and the Snivy who had been his companions back then had been his good friends even though they all knew that their acquaintanceship would be a short one as they would all one day go their separate ways.

Other Pokémon lived at Professor Juniper's lab too; Pokémon belonging to other Trainers that Professor Juniper helped to raise. Although the others may have considered him to be an idiot, he had good knowledge about other Pokémon in the Unova region that he would have unlikely to have seen if he had been raised in his natural habitat. He even knew of many Pokémon that came from overseas since as a Pokémon Professor, Juniper raised all sorts. Of course, in their group, Pikachu was obviously the only one who knew far more about various Pokémon than Oshawott did as a result of his extensive travelling. Some of these Pokémon who were not just being raised, helped out with the experiments that she and her associates conducted, peaceful and definitely safe ones of course. As far as Oshawott knew, they all had very good relationships with each other and the lab was the best place that an Oshawott like himself could live in.

In hindsight, it was all too good to last.

* * *

Oshawott had been out of his Poké Ball again as was his wont to do. He loved exploring the lab and the area surrounding it and in any case, it wasn't healthy staying cooped up inside that Ball all the time. He understood what it was for but that didn't mean that he was obliged to stay in the thing. There was many a time when Professor Juniper had to coax Oshawott back into his Poké Ball but more often than not, Oshawott wandered about as he pleased although he was never too far away from the lab. It was the lab that he was busy wandering about today. It was fortunate then that he was busy exploring the lab's basement because that was the day when Team Plasma came.

Oshawott could hear everything from where he was including the declaration of Team Plasma's superiority. The very walls shook with the ferocity of the battling above. Whatever was going on, it was proving itself to be utter chaos. How many people were there up there? There were screams from both humans and Pokémon, smashed glass, and the unmistakable sound of rushing fire. The flames quickly spread throughout the building and even made its way down into the basement through the open door. Oshawott backed away as he felt the searing heat upon his body though fortunately enough for him; they were not too ferocious in that he wouldn't be able to put out the flames. He leapt on top of the boxes to be as far away from physical contact with the fire as possible and prepared to launch his usual Water moves. As he used Water Gun to protect himself, he heard a voice that still sent shivers down his spine even with remembering it years later.

"People and Pokémon will be separated!" a Plasma Grunt declared. "It is the will of our king that Pokémon and people be distinctly separated into black and white! Only through this will perfection be achieved and only through this will the unworthy be cast away from the Pokémon they claim to love and train! The world shall be a better place if everyone understands this!" Oshawott heard the Grunt's Pokémon yell in agreement; a Garbodor if he was not mistaken.

"How will tearing people and Pokémon away make the world a better place?" Juniper cried out. She had her Minccino and Oshawott knew that Minccino to be an excellent battler. "Do you think either people or Pokémon will appreciate that? You cannot make decisions for other people; you cannot decide whether people and Pokémon must remain apart from each other. If there was a decision to be made, then people would have to do that for themselves. And I doubt that many people would want to make that decision, especially if the Pokémon get no say in it as you're doing now."

Oshawott wanted to help her but he was being beaten back by flames. He hoped that Snivy and Tepig were in a better position than he was even though Tepig, being a Fire-Type, could not do much to put the flames out and Snivy, being a Grass-Type, was especially weak to the fire. Where were they anyway? He couldn't tell; there was no way to call out for them as the Garbodor suddenly used Clear Smog while Minccino, upon Juniper's command, used its very loud Hyper Voice in return.

"Being together with Pokémon improves our understanding of them and allows us to develop bonds that Pokémon reciprocate," Juniper continued once their Pokémon settled back down. "We improve each other simply by being together. We learn to love and care for each other, people and Pokémon alike. There was a time when people and Pokémon were hostile to each other because we were separate and not understand each other. There was conflict, there was war, and people and Pokémon alike died. Do you honestly wish to take us back to those times? What advantages can you hope to gain by forcing people and Pokémon apart?"

"The relationship that we develop with Pokémon is nothing more than an illusion!" the Plasma Grunt sneered. "People partake in frivolous battles and contests with their Pokémon and for what purpose? Pokémon have no concept of these. Why should they understand these things? They are nothing more than tools to be used and abused by people at will! That is why it is imperative to separate people and Pokémon before even more damage is done! Don't you see? Pokémon get hurt through battles purely because they are made obedient to their Trainers' whim and yet you encourage this by giving out Pokémon to new Trainers. The achievements of Trainers are nothing without Pokémon and yet the message seems to be that Pokémon are only given value when controlled by humans. We will make these Trainers give up their Pokémon. We do not belong together. Our values cannot mix. Only when Pokémon are separated from human beings will perfection be achieved."

Oshawott gasped. At his young age, he couldn't keep using Water Gun for so long. He was beginning to run dry. He took a deep breath and sprayed as much water as possible before the flames reached him. There were several commands exchanged as the Pokémon upstairs battled ferociously once again.

"For who? For yourselves?" Juniper answered. "You say that Trainers use their Pokémon as tools and yet you will gladly do the same to achieve your so-called goals of separating people and Pokémon. Where do the Pokémon go once you have liberated them from their Trainers? Many Trainers have come to me in distress that their Pokémon have been snatched from them and yet I never see them back in the wild. Where do you take them? And do you think Pokémon will stop battling simply because we are not there to direct them? You fool. How do you think they get stronger in the wild? They get stronger through Pokémon battles and we get stronger alongside them. A Poké Ball does not also force respect from a Pokémon and make them listen. Love does that although in your case, fear does the same. Fear that they will end up the same way as the Pokémon you have taken from other Trainers. Just what are you doing with those Pokémon?!"

There was a low chuckle. Oshawott doused the last of the flames in the basement but something stopped him from running to the top of the stairs. Fear. He didn't want to be taken away. He liked it here. He was neither used nor abused. He knew that he was loved.

"I suppose since you are a Pokémon Professor, word would reach your ears at some point. However, it is beyond my authority to give you such details. You do realise I've only been toying with you, right? As we have been battling and talking, my associates have thrashed your colleagues and every Pokémon has been cleaned out of this place. Such a large concentration of Pokémon... it was an obvious target for our operations." There was a sudden explosion startling both Oshawott and Professor Juniper. The Grunt's Garbodor took the opportunity to sneak in an extra-powerful attack which must have struck its opponent with a critical-hit as Professor Juniper suddenly cried out for Minccino. "I do believe we have succeeded. In that case, I shall take my leave. I'll even leave you your Minccino. It's the least that we can do after your shocking loss."

There was another explosion and before Professor Juniper and her colleagues knew it, Team Plasma had spirited themselves away leaving no trace of themselves behind and the devastation caused looked to merely be an unfortunate lab accident. There was a deadly quietness. The only sounds that could be heard were the dying flames that soon burned themselves out. Oshawott dashed up the stairs but struggled to open the door far enough ajar seeing how much debris was accumulated on the other side. He cautiously stepped out once he managed to squeeze himself through and saw Professor Juniper on the floor clutching her fainted Minccino.

"**~Osha?~"** he whispered. She didn't respond straight away. Oshawott tugged at her sleeve. Juniper looked up. Her eyes were red.

"Oh, Oshawott. They took your Poké Ball but you weren't in it." She pulled him close and rubbed ash from his face. "It's just as well you like to wander about. Thank goodness you weren't taken away as well."

Had Snivy and Tepig been taken away? Where were the other Pokémon? Oshawott didn't understand and he had never seen Professor Juniper this distraught. Well, frankly, he had never seen her distraught. There had never been any problems at the lab before, at least not the sort to cause this kind of reaction. Soon enough, the other scientists struggled past the debris and discovered that the only two Pokémon left in the building were Professor Juniper's Minccino and Oshawott.

"**~Oshawott?~"** He didn't understand what was going on, why he was being hugged so tightly, why those intruders had come here in the first place. Where had his friends gone?

"I suppose it's unlikely that we'll ever see them again," Juniper mumbled. "Anyone else who have had Pokémon stolen from them have never seen them again either. And you can't forget those that you have lost. But for the sake of every Pokémon, we will find out what that Team Plasma has done to them, those… those…" Words failed her. "We need to get you with a Trainer as soon as possible, Oshawott," she said as she tickled his chin as a means of comfort. "Someone that will look after you and make sure that you're protected from criminals like Team Plasma."

Officer Jenny and her colleagues arrived on the scene although they were obviously too late to do anything other than help clean up the devastation and restore the lab back to its usual pristine self. Oshawott lent his assistance while Juniper's Minccino recovered from the harsh battle; he needed to do something to keep his mind off that recent event. He kept unusually close to Professor Juniper for quite some time before he felt secure enough to venture out on his own again and though not said out loud, Juniper wished for Oshawott to remain close to her anyway until she felt that enough time had passed to let the Pokémon do his own thing again. The lab received new Pokémon including another Snivy and Tepig although they weren't hatchlings like he had been; perhaps they wanted slightly more experienced Starter Pokémon what with everything that had gone on. However, they were not like the Snivy and the Tepig that he knew, the Snivy and Tepig that he had never seen since. They did not spend long together anyway as new Trainers came by and selected the other two Pokémon. Oshawott had not been chosen.

"I'm sure there'll be a Trainer soon just waiting to choose you," Juniper had reassured him when Oshawott had felt utterly downcast. He felt lonely. He desperately wanted to meet other Pokémon outside of the lab and go on a journey if only so that he could get stronger. Nice as the area was, there wasn't much opportunity for that around here.

Time passed as time does and Oshawott watched the seasons change; the leaves that fell off trees to be replaced by falling snow before again being replaced by fresh blossoms and new, green leaves. Trainers came by in all of this time and yet for some reason or another, he had still not been chosen.

_What's wrong with me?_ he thought miserably to himself when yet another Trainer came by and selected a Snivy. _What have I done wrong?_ He had been here for such a long time and had seen so many Trainers pass through and pass by, sometimes giving him some consideration, sometimes not even a glance. How many was that now, 16, 17 Trainers that had decided not to not select him? That must have been some kind of record.

He was enthusiastic and endearing; he'd put his heart and soul into anything that was asked of him. Why did nobody want him? He felt even worse the next day when a new Snivy arrived, perhaps a little older than him; a Snivy that thought it amusing to pick on him for what he perceived as weakness and cowardliness, seeing an Oshawott that barely knew any moves and was still greatly attached to a Professor that he was supposed to be leaving behind at one point anyway. At least the Tepig was friendly enough although Oshawott suspected that the Tepig would be chosen before him no matter what he did. Oshawott clenched his fists in a mixture of fury and determination. There was another Trainer due to arrive in the next day or so. If that one didn't choose him, then the next Trainer that came along afterwards, he was going to follow no matter what and prove to them that he was a worthwhile Pokémon to accept.

Just when would that day come when he was accepted for not only what he was, but who he was?

* * *

Oshawott sighed. He wondered at times whether he had truly been accepted. They treated him well enough but there was always that thought in the back of his mind that if things had been different, would he be with another Trainer or would he still have been at the Pokémon Lab if he hadn't chased after Ash? He looked at his Trainer and saw all the Pokémon out of their Poké Balls sleeping quite peacefully on the grass. He shook his head; though Ash reserved special attention for Pikachu, he was pretty sure that he loved all his other Pokémon equally; he was just being insecure. The important thing was to make sure that his friends were safe. Though he regretted that he hadn't started training himself a long time ago, he was much stronger now. He would make sure that Team Plasma never came near them.

He found himself sitting beside Snivy, looking as if she hadn't a care in the world. Although he knew that she was perfectly capable of looking after herself, being more mature than he was, it was her that he wanted to protect most of all. His heart hammered as he realised he wanted her so badly. Why was it so difficult to say how he really felt? He could wake Snivy up now and say it while everyone else was asleep; it was about the only time that he would get the chance to do so; no Axew and Scraggy interrupting, certainly no Emolga butting in, he wanted to make it perfect. But he couldn't bring himself to do so. Not yet.

Oshawott's tail touched Snivy's as he lay back struggling to keep awake. Even that sent waves of desire through him. He curled up next to Snivy hoping that she wouldn't mind too much in the morning. Perhaps he could sleep on the issue and suddenly wake up with an epiphany. He almost laughed; he doubted that was going to happen. He would have dropped off there and then if he hadn't heard any voices.

"Looks like the twerps are all asleep, eh?"

"Shh! Not so loud. You might wake them and I don't know about you, but I don't fancy getting shocked by Pikachu again."

"This will be the best thing that any of Team Rocket has ever given to the Boss!"

"Yeah! An' we'll be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams!"

"**~Wobbuffet!~" **

Oshawott was immediately upright. He removed his scalchop and hid behind a tree. In the dark, it took him a few moments to pick Team Rocket out but then he spotted them a little distance away with some sort of machine attached to their Meowth Air Balloon, presumably designed to suck them into captivity or something. He did, however, relax slightly. This was no problem; he could easily deal with Team Rocket, he had, after all, dealt with them before.

"But what use will talking Pokémon be for the Boss?" James asked as he carried a remote control designed for use with their new device. Oshawott's blood froze. They knew about that?

"Picture this if you will," Meowth began. He grinned; this was his area of expertise. "Da Boss is always workin' hard makin' sure that everybody in da business is happy an' they themselves are workin' hard for the good of Team Rocket an' he can ask that of the humans but sometimes, it's hard to know what the Pokémon want or when they have some good ideas to benefit Team Rocket. He gets stressed because bein' da Boss is a big responsibility an' everyone's dependin' on you. So he strips off his suit an' goes for a little dip in his private pool to relax an' whaddya suppose he will find?"

"Why do you always envisage the Boss in his swimming gear during your fantasies?" Jessie smirked.

"Nyaaa! I do not!" Meowth denied hotly even though he was blushing. "Anyway, that's where we come in! We come to the Rocket HQ an' give da Boss talkin' Pokémon who will then be able to translate the words of da Pokémon when I'm not around an' so that I can still do good Rocket business of course! Sometimes, they'll even be able to sing songs that he'll be able to understand when he needs a bit of cheerin' up! An' then he will be so happy he'll say_ 'I've just got to thank Meowth and his friends for helpin' me an' Team Rocket out so much. So much in fact, that they deserve all the money that they can carry an' also an' all-expenses paid for holiday in da sun!'_"

"**~Wobbuffet!~"**

"Ooh, that sounds marvellous!" James chuckled. "Do you think that might actually happen?"

"As sure as the charm on my head!" Meowth grinned. "Though what I really wanna know is why they can talk in da first place," he said more seriously. "They can't have just learnt it like that; it took me ages to learn how to talk although it didn't get me what I really wanted."

"Well, at least you have us," said Jessie not unkindly. Meowth mumbled something under his breath that was probably not meant for anybody else's ears. "Now, let's go get the twerps' Pokémon!"

Before they could take another step forwards, Oshawott dashed out of his hiding place and brandished his scalchop like a sword. Team Rocket actually took a step backwards when they noticed his bared teeth. The first thing that people (and Pokémon) noticed of the Oshawott species was that they were unbelievably cute. The second thing that they noticed was that they were highly skilled in using their scalchops as a weapon not to mention highly protective of said scalchops. The last thing that was ever noticed of an Oshawott was that they had surprisingly sharp fangs despite not using any biting moves.

"Relax, Oshy!" said Meowth, holding up his paws in a show of submission. Oshawott wasn't fooled. He also resented being called Oshy except by one certain Pokémon. He kept a stony silence and glared at the intruders.

"I suppose you overheard us before so there's little point in trying to hide your little secret now," Jessie sighed. "It's not as if we wouldn't be trying to steal you and the other twerps on some occasion and besides, it would be nice to hear another Pokémon talk for a change anyway."

"What's wrong with me?!" Meowth cried indignantly. Wobbuffet just saluted and said his usual **"~Wobbuffet!~"**

"You're just as bad as they are," Oshawott whispered. He sighed to himself. This felt so weird. The first humans that he was talking to on a more or less equal footing in their own language and it had to be these guys. "But whatever happens, I'm not letting you take my friends away!"

"Or Snivy," James reminded him.

"Or Sni-" Oshawott turned bright red. Had they been listening in while he was talking in his sleep or something? "Wha-what do you want to steal us for?" he stammered. This seemed far more difficult to do than it was whenever Meowth had to translate for them. "We've never done anything to you!"

"Well, if you came willingly, then it wouldn't be stealing!" said Jessie brightly. "Team Rocket is always looking for new recruits. You'd be perfect for the Boss!"

"Well, why isn't Meowth there instead, if your Boss would love talking Pokémon?" Oshawott asked. He didn't understand why he was talking to these villains. He should have just used his good old Razor Shell on them straight away. Meowth flinched and decided to ignore the question by plunging straight in with another.

"How on earth are you twerps able to talk?" he demanded. "You didn't go through it the hard way like I did; one of the very few non-legendary Pokémon that is able to do so an' I'm very proud of that fact! I bet it was somethin' to do with dat Team Plasma wasn't it? Those villains!"

"And do you think we asked for that?" said Oshawott, still keeping his ground. "And do you think that you're any better? You steal Pokémon like they do and I bet your Team Rocket do experiments as well! We were lucky that nothing bad happened to us since their lab was abandoned and we had no idea what was going to happen to us but I bet others weren't so lucky. It doesn't matter if I can talk or not, I'm not letting my friends be taken away again!"

"Again?" James asked as Oshawott quivered with fury. "What do you mean again? Was that to do with Team Plasma? We certainly had no involvement with whatever you're referring to. We would have remembered if there was a success."

Oshawott knew that he could have just blasted Team Rocket or have woken up the others to get them to do some blasting as well and yet something was stopping him from doing so. Maybe it was due to the fact that Team Rocket sat down and that James had pocketed the remote device. He couldn't believe what was happening and wondered if he really had fallen asleep.

"You wouldn't understand," he said bitterly. "You've taken Pokémon before and separated us from our friends and families. What the hell do you know about loss? You're just like Team Plasma even if you weren't involved that time…"

"Oh, we've seen Team Plasma," said James darkly. "And we might have done some bad things, we certainly don't deny it, but at least we've never intended to keep the whole of humanity and Pokémon separate from each other. What would be the point of that? We ought to share our lives with each other. And at least we don't mistreat our Pokémon like they do." As if to back it up, all of James's Pokémon came out to hug him, thorns and all.

"Yeah, or you'd have me to answer to," said Meowth grimly as James tried to stop Carnivine from biting his head with affection. At least he wasn't screaming much or he would have definitely woken up the twerps. "It really does change a human's perspective you know when the few who know me as a Meowth have heard me talk. Since we can both understand each other, it's kinda like we're equals. Sure we have our arguments an' stuff but I kinda like the whole deal."

"Why let us talk then if Team Plasma just want to separate us?" Oshawott questioned. "They would have known that we were all perfectly happy at the lab and that we didn't want to leave with them…"

"They can make it clear enough without talkin' an' they'd still steal them," said Meowth. "Pikachu makes it clear to us that he doesn't want to leave the twerp. We do know that, we're not that stupid." Oshawott snorted at this. "They'll try to find ya, you know," Meowth added. "An' mebbe once you lot have been captured, they'll get you t'say how you were mistreated an' stuff so that it would be better if you were freed." Oshawott's eyes widened.

"That's it," said Oshawott quietly. "That must be why they did that experiment. I guess it would be easy enough to threaten both Trainer and Pokémon so that they would have no choice but to do whatever Team Plasma says. And I guess people would have no reason to think that we were lying about being mistreated if we were told to say that. They'd listen to us more than Team Plasma themselves. Emolga mentioned something like that. And maybe," he said more to himself. "They need to understand what we're saying if we get put to slavery or run through another one of their experiments. I heard things from Professor Juniper," he sighed. "Not intentionally but… I've heard things."

"So that's the plan, eh?" James said once he finally extracted himself from Carnivine and Cacnea's grip. "I wondered what the possibilities of using talking Pokémon were."

Oshawott suddenly wondered why the same experiment also allowed them to learn far more moves than before as well. He did not care to mention this to Team Rocket though.

"**~Wobber~Wobber!~"** said Wobbuffet in some distress. He didn't like the idea of that plan at all.

"What was that?" said Jessie to her strange-looking but always endearing Pokémon.

"He said that we would also probably be used to take over the world because that's the sort of thing they would do," Oshawott translated before he could stop himself. He was surprised. It also made him consider whether that was a possible reason for extending their abilities. Always with the world domination…

Meowth smirked. "See, Oshy? It comes in handy a lot of the time ya see."

_Don't call me Oshy_, he thought angrily. _Only Snivy can call me that! _He did hope for her to call him that anyway.

"That's pretty much the goal of any regional team," Jessie remarked. "But at least we have the interests of Pokémon at heart." Oshawott rolled his eyes. He could hardly believe that. "So we've got to stop them from carrying out their plans even if it's only for own benefit. They would be far worse than anything we have ever done and far worse than the world has ever seen. Every Pokémon could be in danger from them and besides, Meowth could be in danger from them too since he can already talk."

"What?" Meowth whispered. He had never considered himself to be a target. And since Team Plasma spies were likely everywhere, they probably knew of his existence even though they were very careful when conducting their own missions. Jessie was right. He was in danger because he was one of those special, talking Pokémon and he damn well knew it. He then unsheathed his claws. "If I ever see those good-for-nothin', lyin', cheatin', rotten scumbags, then I'll swipe them with Slash before they can say 'who's that Pokémon?'"

"Like yourselves then," Oshawott growled. He had his scalchop at the ready again. "I don't know what you'd do with us if you ever actually caught us and got away with it, but I doubt it's any better than what Team Plasma is doing! Just… just… go away now! Just go unless you want us all to attack you again!"

"You're letting us go without a fight?" James queried. "How peculiar…"

"Well, if it's being offered, I say we better take it," said Jessie. "We will be around at some other point, though," she added before the Team Rocket gang walked back to their Meowth Air Balloon. Oshawott followed them just to make sure that they didn't suddenly activate the device fixed to their balloon.

"Ya know, I don't think there's much point in keepin' your little secret secret much longer," said Meowth as he clambered into the Air Balloon. "It was difficult for me t'keep mine after I left town and Meowsie." He sighed at the memory of that. "It'll be a whole lotta weight off your back if ya just say somethin' to them and I bet they won't mind too much. Jessie an' James were perfectly fine wid da whole idea after all. It's gonna get given away at some point or another, especially if you're battlin', and besides, if you guys don't spill the beans to your Trainers, we probably will," Meowth smiled.

Before Oshawott could think of anything to say, the Meowth Air Balloon took off into the night sky with its Pokémon-capturing device unused (though it would likely be saved for another occasion of course). He didn't flop back down onto the grass until he was sure that they were completely out of sight. He doubted that they would go far; they always liked to keep tabs on their favourite targets.

"Hey, Oshawott? What's going on?"

Oshawott flinched. Ash was upright in his sleeping bag looking very tired and blinking to try and keep himself awake.

"Thought I heard something," he mumbled. "I almost thought I heard you say something that wasn't in Pokémon but I guess it was just a dream." Oshawott stood rigidly still as Ash settled back down. "You should get some sleep, Oshawott," he yawned. "We're gonna do some special training tomorrow…"

It was only a couple of minutes until Ash had fallen asleep again so that Oshawott could relax slightly but now he was more confused than ever. He supposed that Meowth that was right and it would be better to reveal their secret while they were at camp say, instead of inadvertently blurting it out during a frantic battle and shocking not only their own Trainers, but whoever they would be battling with at the time too. But how was one supposed to reveal such a secret? He had no idea.

Completely unable to sleep, Oshawott got up and swam about in the lake until dawn broke several hours later.

* * *

"Only another day until the Pokémon Mystery Tournament begins!" Bianca trilled in her usual excited state that morning. "It's going to be so wonderful! I can't wait for it!"

Everybody was looking forward to the tournament, especially as Bianca kept referring to it, and since they had covered a good distance the previous day, they had no need to rush along this morning to their destination. Mistralton City was only an hour away if that, so the Trainers had plenty of time to indulge in some special training as Ash liked to call it. While their Pokémon breakfasted though (watched by Bianca who was too enamoured with their cuteness to notice anything else), Ash did take the opportunity to ask Cilan and Iris if they had noticed anything unusual in their Pokémon. He himself mentioned that though it was somewhat hard to explain, he felt that their Pokémon had definitely changed somewhat since their mishap in the Plasma Laboratory. He was relieved then when Cilan and Iris expressed similar concerns.

"It's like they're hiding something from us," Iris whispered. "But I don't know what it could be."

"Yeah, even Pikachu's been… I don't know, cautious of late I guess," said Ash. And Pikachu never normally had a problem before; at least, not one that he couldn't figure out.

"I'm sure we'll find out the reason behind it soon," Cilan sighed. "It's quite a mystery. Perhaps it should be detective time!"

"I really don't think we need that, Cilan..." Iris groaned and sincerely hoped there would not be a detective connoisseur speech. Meanwhile, Ash glanced over at their Pokémon. They seemed happy enough and they were definitely being well-fed having Cilan's delicious treats to feed upon. Oshawott looked rather tired to him but he would soon feel refreshed after a bit of training. Besides, training alongside one of their team members always kept them on their toes. That was why Ash decided to concentrate on Oshawott first and he decided to pair him up with Snivy.

_I don't want to do this!_ Oshawott moaned inwardly. Never mind the fact that Snivy would be able to do more damage to him than vice versa, he didn't want to end up hurting her in any way. He hoped that Ash didn't notice him visibly shaking at the thought and if he did, he hoped that he would contribute it to the fact that Oshawott was exhausted. He barely had a wink of sleep that night; too busy playing over in his mind what Team Rocket had said and however he was supposed to declare his love for Snivy. A battle was not the way to do it.

"Use Tackle, Oshawott!"

Oshawott didn't move. He found himself frozen on one spot. Snivy was giving him a curious look. She smiled when she realised the reason for Oshawott's lack of movement. _Bless him_, she thought fondly_._

"Come on, Oshawott. The best way for you to get your speed up at the moment is by training with Snivy since she's pretty fast. Don't worry about it. Just use Tackle!"

Oshawott still wasn't for moving. Snivy flicked her vines at him, trying to get the message across that it was perfectly alright for him to Tackle her since it wasn't exactly a painful move and it wasn't as if he would be doing it for no reason.

"Maybe you're still tired," Ash mused. "Perhaps if I get you to dodge instead. Alright then, Snivy! Use Slam!"

Snivy charged forwards with Oshawott barely avoiding her attack. He looked at her for a few moments. He seemed to understand. There would be no harm done in mock-battling each other. It didn't stop him feeling guilty though when he tackled Snivy into the ground even if she did swiftly get up afterwards.

"OK! That was good!" said Ash encouragingly. "Now try Aqua Tail, Oshawott!"

Oshawott sent a powerful Aqua Tail Snivy's way though she quickly dodged it and the water crashed into a nearby tree instead.

"Alright! Now Snivy! Use Attract! Oh, wait, I didn't mean one! I meant another move!" Ash cried.

It was too late though. Snivy sent out Attract and she instantly realised what would happen as soon as she sent it out. Even if Oshawott was fully awake, there would have been no way for him to avoid the large hearts that shrank into his body causing him to briefly glow a light pink colour. This time, another number of pink hearts still surrounded him in his infatuated state despite the fact that all the hearts were supposed to strike their opponent. Oshawott swayed on the spot in quite a dreamy state of mind and moaned to himself. Snivy knew that if she was to even lay a finger on him at his point, his emotions would be sent into overdrive to say the least if they weren't already.

"Whoa, I've never seen that happen before," Ash commented with a raised eyebrow as Oshawott dashed and danced about with a trail of hearts still following him like a thing possessed. He had no idea why Oshawott, still in a dream-like state, was spinning water around himself so that it caught the sunlight and created a rainbow effect (though it did make him think that Dawn would have liked the effect as an excellent contest move in the appeal round). He didn't understand either why Oshawott was pulling certain poses with his scalchop in its Razor Shell form, swishing it about so that it left a trail of blue light, cutting through the water that he himself sent up. There was a sudden light drizzle as Oshawott kept dancing about with his brightly glowing scalchop causing the same effect as the Water-Type move Rain Dance. Fortunately, none of the Trainers (for everybody had now noticed Oshawott's odd behaviour) realised that this was in fact the Oshawott version of a mating dance.

And then he said it.

"SNIVY!" he cried out loud. "I LOVE YOU AND I WANT TO BE WITH YOU FOREVER AND FOREVER MORE!"

There was a deadly silence from both Pokémon and Trainers as Oshawott, having finished his remarkable display, suddenly flopped backwards onto the grass, having exhausted himself out. Pikachu gulped nervously. If he was expecting their secret to be suddenly unwittingly unveiled, then he hadn't expected it to be revealed _quite_ in this fashion. He didn't even dare to see Snivy's reaction to all of this. All of the Pokémon were shocked by what just happened.

Cilan, Iris and Bianca had no idea what to say to this. Ash, on the other hand, just had to ask the question.

"Did… Did Oshawott just talk?" he whispered.


	6. I Pledge Myself To You

**Thanks for your reviews, everybody! This story has been quite popular. Maybe I should collaborate more often! (If I didn't have a load of my own stuff that is.) So once again, I'm putting my Mario story on the back-burner (I will get round to doing that next chapter) and continuing with this while the details are fresh in my mind. Oshawott for the win!**

* * *

**Chapter 6: I Pledge Myself To You**

_Oshawott was still shaking with nerves though the bouquet of roses he had grabbed from goodness knows where (nobody knew how Oshawott managed to make roses materialise out of thin air, not even Oshawott himself) had calmed him down a little. He scratched at his ruff again and tried to loosen his grip so that he wouldn't catch himself on the one or two thorns he had forgot to remove._

_What a beautiful sunset, he thought to himself as he noticed the ruby-red sun beginning to dip below the horizon, the sky illuminated with a spectrum of pinks, oranges and reds. Almost as beautiful as Snivy. Hey, that might be a good line to say. I hope she doesn't mind me saying that. He smiled. He knew the moment was going to be a perfect one._

_He saw Axew and Scraggy playing with each other in the grass. Excellent. He saw Emolga sitting next to her Trainer Iris with a pile of apples for company. Even better. She wouldn't be fussed about seeing or doing anything else when her stomach was satisfied. And they called him greedy._

_All the other Pokémon in their team were more or less lounging about alongside their Trainers. Finally, he wouldn't be disturbed. There was one other Pokémon who was not amongst them but he knew where she would be, they had arranged a meeting place earlier. She was waiting on the other side of the hill near the river. Waiting for him._

_He breathed heavily; he had butterfree in his stomach. In and out. In and out. OK, now he was ready. It would be rude to keep her waiting after all. He picked up his pace and walked up the grassy hill…_

"I wasn't hearing things was I?" said Ash in disbelief. He shook his head and stared at the Water-Type Pokémon who was still lying on his back groaning to himself. Every now and then, he was mumbling something under his breath. They caught words like 'flowers' and 'sunset' and certainly more than once, 'Snivy'. Ash chose not to comment on this for the time being. "No, Oshawott's definitely talking. But… why? And how?"

"Pokémon don't normally talk do they?" Bianca whispered. She was as shocked as they were. "Except that Meowth from Team Rocket you've mentioned before."

"Yeah, but Meowth is a special case," said Iris. "I was shocked when I heard him talk and I certainly never thought I would hear another talking Pokémon. Although…" She giggled nervously. "It was quite sweet what Oshawott said." Everybody suddenly glanced at Snivy who turned away blushing. Pikachu raised a pokébrow. This was Snivy they were talking about. She had never blushed with such embarrassment before or if she did, then they certainly hadn't seen it before; she was much too proud for that.

"I suspect that this has been hidden for quite some time, like a rare and secret ingredient hidden in the very back of the spice cupboard," Cilan mused. "And I doubt that Oshawott would have revealed it if he hadn't been hit by Attract." Snivy turned red again. Damn it, if only Ash hadn't messed up with the commands. "There's only one place we've been to recently that this could have happened and that's…"

"The Plasma Laboratory," Ash finished for him. Even Ash had worked that one out. "Professor Juniper couldn't find anything wrong with our Pokémon; there definitely wasn't anything physically wrong. They seemed to be really quiet at the time and have been pretty quiet since. And that means…" He turned to his lifelong partner, his trusted friend, his loyal and lovable Pikachu. The Electric-Type flinched. "Pikachu. Can… can you talk?"

Pikachu sighed. There was no getting out of this one, not even if Team Rocket suddenly turned up and decided to capture them again which would, in fact, almost be a blessing. But that would only be delaying the inevitable. Hearing Oshawott's outburst wasn't something that their Trainers were likely to forget quickly. In fact, it was probably better that way. Nothing like a short, sharp shock in revealing a secret that had been weighing all of them down. Their Trainers had noticed that something was wrong after all so sooner or later, they would have to reveal it. This didn't stop Pikachu from feeling utterly terrified though.

Ash was still waiting for an answer. He saw the fear in his Pokémon's eyes. Being the leader wasn't all it was cracked up to be, Pikachu thought afterwards.

"Y-yeah," Pikachu said finally in a somewhat squeaky tone. He cleared his throat and started again. "Um… yeah, I can talk, Ash." That felt quite nice to say actually, his Trainer's name out loud. "S-since we got caught in that Plasma experiment. Oshawott found out first though that we could talk like humans," he felt obliged to add. Well, it was he who started talking human talk first so it was almost fitting that it was Oshawott who had revealed to their Trainers exactly what they had been hiding all this time.

"Can you talk, Axew?" Iris whispered. The little Dragon Pokémon nodded. "But Pikachu said that we had to keep quiet otherwise bad people would come and take us!" he piped up. "Because we're now very rare," his friend Scraggy added. They both felt a sense of relief. It had been hard work keeping their ability secret for so long although both supposed they were glad that they hadn't broke it first.

"So can I," said Pansage before Cilan had the chance to ask him. "Everybody who was involved in that Plasma experiment can talk like humans now. We've… just not said anything in that time because we weren't sure if Team Plasma were going to follow us or Team Rocket for that matter. They always seem to be following us after all. And… we didn't know how you were going to react…"

"I-I see," Cilan stuttered.

Ash looked at his still-unconscious Water Pokémon, still mumbling incoherent things to himself and was now hitting his tail against the grass for reasons unknown. He looked at the other Pokémon who seemed nervous, terrified even. It must have been a pretty big change to go through, to suddenly be saying things that you had never heard yourself say before; to have this knowledge that you were now very different to every other Pokémon you had ever met and to realise that you were now a bigger target than ever for people who only used Pokémon as tools for battling and experiments that none of them wished to imagine. It was logical that they wanted to keep themselves safe and it made sense that they were scared of how their Trainers would take this unexpected news. It wasn't as if they could ask any other Pokémon for advice after all, except Meowth he supposed and he was hardly their definition of a friend.

If the Trainers had suddenly discovered how to speak the Pokémon language on the spot, then no doubt they would be confused as well and how would Pokémon react towards them on that knowledge? Would they be friends or foes? Maybe they would accept it seeing a human that could communicate with them on their own level or perhaps they would be unnerved and extremely wary of such a human since humans talking in the Pokémon language were practically unknown after all. And with their Pokémon now talking, would they be still friends or something completely different? Ash had already decided the answer to that one.

"You know, buddy," said Ash as he picked up Pikachu. "When I've been asleep and dreaming, you often appear in them and more often than not, I don't know why, but you talk in them. I admit you sounded quite different in them than you do now but I always used to think in those dreams that it would be cool if Pokémon could talk." Pikachu frowned. What was his Trainer getting at? "And now it's real and I've heard you guys talk, do you know what? It's even better."

Pikachu's eyes widened. "You… you mean it?"

"Of course!" Ash exclaimed. "We can tell what you're all saying now. We can really talk with each other. We can all be so much closer. Oh, Pikachu," he said hugging his Pokémon tightly. "We've been through so much together, so many different things, stuff that we've been lucky to escape from or stuff that we've been lucky to see and might never see again. We've seen so many cool and amazing things, but this… this is definitely the best moment of them all."

Pikachu didn't know what to say at first. His Trainer didn't mind, and was in fact, happy about it. A smile spread across his face and he hugged Ash back just as tightly. "Thanks for understanding," he whispered.

Ash didn't know how to put it in words but this was probably even better than the day when he first became a Trainer. It was certainly better than winning gym badges or competitions. How could it not be? Besides, how many Trainers had Pokémon that they could not only talk to but listen to as well? It was, without doubt, the best feeling in the world. He looked at the rest of his Pokémon. "And I can understand you guys as well. We won't let this change anything between us. We'll still be friends, won't we? The best friends that a Trainer can ever hope for." He laughed as his relieved and ecstatic Pokémon suddenly bounded on top of him making them all tumble into the grass.

"I agree with Ash! Isn't this amazing!" Iris cried. "We'll all be close and happy and everything! This is just so cool!" Iris too, was joined by her Pokémon as was Cilan by his. He had tears forming in his eyes. "This is just the happiest day of my life!" he sobbed.

"Aww, I wish my Pokémon could speak," said Bianca as she watched the Trainers playing with Pokémon. "Oh, well, let's hug anyway!" she announced bringing her Pokémon close together. She understood her Pokémon in a manner of speaking of course, she was just that sort of Trainer.

The only Pokémon who hadn't joined in was Snivy, not because she didn't want to, she didn't mind being hugged every now and then even if she mainly kept herself to herself, but she was concerned that Oshawott still hadn't woken up. She approached him cautiously, wondering whether it would be safe to touch him yet. She did not fancy explaining to Axew and Scraggy, or their Trainers for that matter, why Oshawott could suddenly start chasing her with… more inflamed passions than usual if she touched him. She didn't think that her Attract was _that_ strong. Or maybe it was his feelings that were so much stronger. And she knew that she felt the same way towards that clumsy, greedy, cute, strong, caring Oshawott of hers.

"Wow, just imagine what Professor Oak and Professor Juniper will say!" Ash grinned. "I doubt this has ever come up in their research. I think it would be good if we tell them though; Professor Oak will probably realise that there's something different about you, Pikachu and I'm sure Professor Juniper will be relieved to know that that Plasma experiment didn't do anything bad to you guys."

"Our move set was increased too," said Pignite happily. "That will be useful for battling."

"I still wanna battle!" Scraggy demanded as he yanked his skin pants up once again. "I don't want this stopping our battling!"

"Yeah, me too!" said Axew joining in.

"Well, it shouldn't be too much of a problem," said Cilan with Pansage sitting comfortably on his shoulder. "As long as we're cautious and don't go shouting this from the rooftops, we should be fine. We'll need to be careful since we're on our own with this and besides, you did mention Team Plasma."

"Oh, we'll be fine," said Iris airily. "We won't be that careless." She gave Ash a quick glance but decided to pass comment for once. "Hey! Won't Trip's Servine be able to talk as well?" she suddenly realised. "His Pokémon went through the same thing after all."

"You're right!" Ash exclaimed. "I wonder if Trip's Servine has said anything yet. It's sad though when you think about it; none of Trip's other Pokémon went through this so I guess Servine's really on his own. We could always try asking next time we bump into him although he'll probably think it's just another dumb Kanto idea…"

_That's a point,_ Snivy thought. _He surely can't be dealing with it as if it was nothing. At least I have other Pokémon to share this skill with._ She almost felt sorry for her sibling. _It wouldn't surprise me though, if he's been using it to lord over his team-mates. And when we meet again, Servine and Oshawott are only going to continue fighting. _She looked at the sleeping Water-Type. Well, Servine could disapprove all he liked but that wasn't going to change her opinion of Oshawott.

"Hey, is Oshawott still asleep? I thought he would have woken up by now," said Ash sitting upright with his Pokémon piled on him. "Why did Oshawott act like that, anyway?" he asked Pikachu while stroking his ears. "I've never seen Attract do that before. Is it to do with your new ability?"

"It's nothing to do with that," said Pikachu, enjoying the pleasant sensation. "It's because…" Oh, boy. How to explain this to the Trainers and in the presence of the two younger Pokémon in the family? Cilan was the only human there considered mature enough for the more detailed information for goodness sake. Best not to get into too much detail then. "Er, you don't mind if I mention this, do you?" Pikachu asked Snivy.

"Well…" How could she get anymore embarrassed? "I suppose it will make it easier to understand if you explain it," she whispered. Come to think of it, it would be more embarrassing if she had to explain it.

"OK, then. Well…" This was a strange conversation to have so soon after the reveal as it were. "Normally, Attract just makes a Pokémon infatuated with the Pokémon that sent out Attract. That's happened a few times in the battles we've had in Unova." More so than any other regions it seemed. Attract just loved Unova. "But if a Pokémon really loves another Pokémon, well, Attract magnifies that and it can make them do crazy things that make not make much sense to anybody else. And they really can't resist it." _So there was nothing that Oshawott could do really_, Pikachu thought. _I suppose it's just as well he didn't say anything more embarrassing._ It was a good dance though he had to acknowledge.

"Aww, that's just so sweet!" Bianca gushed. "I wish I could have taken a picture of that!"

_No, it was meant to be private_, Snivy thought. _That's something Oshawott wouldn't have done if he was in his right mind. And he's going to blame himself for it, _she realised.

"Hmm, as a Pokémon Connoisseur, I've never come across behaviour like that, but then, I don't think I would have understand what exactly it meant if you hadn't explained it to us, Pikachu," said Cilan happily. "Just think of how much we can now learn from each other!"

"But why specifically a dance?" Ash asked in a not uncommon state of confusion.

_If you give the real reason why, you are dead Pikachu!_ Snivy almost hissed.

Pikachu must have seen her expression because he said: "It's just an Oshawott thing. And Oshawott is a bit of a romantic at heart."

Emolga gave Snivy a wicked grin unnoticed by her Trainer. Oh, the fun she could have out of this! Snivy glared back. The fact that their Trainers would be able to understand them now wasn't going to change the amount of arguing that they would do. In fact, it would not be too surprising if it actually increased since Emolga would now be able to directly appeal to her Trainer to take her side on something that Snivy would consider ridiculous or petty.

"I think we should wake him up now," said Snivy quietly. "Though he's going to be quite confused over what's happened. Break it to him gently, won't you? And Pikachu, it's probably better if you do it."

"What? Oh, right," he said understanding. He bounded off Ash and went over to shake the sleeping Water-Type awake.

_Oshawott had reached the top and he saw Snivy's radiant form down next to the river. He sighed happily. What was there not to love about her? She was smart, strong, attractive, and caring even if she came as cool or even cold-hearted to the rest of the team. But Oshawott understood her reasons; she just liked her privacy and it was just not in her personality to be the overly-motherly or the completely open type. She was watchful from a distance. And she was proud, very much like Oshawott. _

"_Hello, Oshawott. I almost thought you were going to be late," she said once he had dashed down towards her. She smiled at him and his heart fluttered once more._

"_I would never be late for you, Snivy," he said with a nervous grin. "I might have been here even earlier but I saw these flowers and I thought they smelt so sweet, they looked so beautiful, I just had to pick them because they reminded me of you." There! He had said it without stuttering once!_

"_Thank you, Oshawott," she said, surprised as he presented the bouquet to her with a typical Oshawott flourish, like a knight waiting to be dubbed by the lady he swore to protect always."They are beautiful. And they are sweet," she said as she sniffed them. She suddenly pulled Oshawott towards her with her vines. "But not as sweet as you."_

"_Y-you think so?" he stammered. Heck, corny or not, this was his dream. He wrapped his arms around her just as she did with him. Finally, they were alone and undisturbed. She was warm to the touch and she was gazing right into his eyes. "Snivy… I love you."_

"_I love you too, Oshawott."_

_She loved him?! Oshawott couldn't help but grin euphorically. They leaned against each other and prepared to give that special kiss…_

"Hey, Oshawott, wake up. You've been out of it for ages. Wake up."

_Just a little bit closer…_

"Oshawott, wake up."

_Huh? What was happening? Why was everything going dark? No, he could see light streaming through his closed eyelids. Wh-what was going on?_

"Oshawott! Come on! Wake up!"

Oshawott reluctantly woke up and found Pikachu staring at him, not the Pokémon he admittedly wanted to see. _Why couldn't you have waited five minutes? _he grumbled to himself_. I wanted that dream, Arceus damn you._ Then he realised something. Pikachu wasn't talking in Pokémon.

"Where are our Trainers?" Oshawott mumbled, still tired. It wasn't as if he had a fantastic sleep last night after all. "They can't be around if you're using human talk."

"Yeah, about that," said Pikachu uneasily. "How can I say this? You, er, well, the thing is, you… kinda revealed it to them, Oshawott."

Oshawott's heart stopped. "Wh-what?" he stammered. He scrambled upright. "I haven't said anything, honestly, at least nothing intentional. Were we attacked? Was I knocked out? Did Team Rocket say anything? I swear they already knew! I didn't reveal it to them! It wasn't my fault! Please don't think it was my fault!"

Now Pikachu was the confused one. "Team Rocket?"

Oh, hell. Oh, hell, oh, hell, oh, hell, _oh, hell_. Oshawott realised that everybody was staring at him, both Trainers and Pokémon, and were now wondering how on earth Team Rocket had uncovered the secret before Ash, Iris and Cilan had even discussed the issue with each other. Having seen Oshawott awake the previous night, Ash could only come to the conclusion that Oshawott had somehow blurted it to them. But why would he do that? Maybe it was a mistake and he let something slip before fighting them off. But surely Oshawott would have woken them up, right, knowing the threat that Team Rocket posed?

"What did I say?" Oshawott whispered. Pikachu quickly reiterated Oshawott's earlier words to him not to mention his actions causing the Water-Type to freeze up and breathe heavily. Oshawott was as embarrassed as Snivy had been, perhaps even more so. _I didn't want it to happen that way! _he berated himself_. I wanted it to be special! Snivy deserved something special! Now I've just ruined everything. I finally figured out what to do but I've already ruined it._

"What did you say to Team Rocket?" Ash asked quietly. Oshawott took a step back and tried to blink tears from his eyes.

"You told them that we could talk, even though we all agreed not to say anything?" Emolga muttered, throwing metaphorical wood onto the fire.

"I-I-I didn't say anything," Oshawott whispered. "Well, I said some words but…"

"So you did reveal it to them!" said Emolga dramatically.

"Why did you do that?" Axew whimpered. His eyes were watering. "We were told that bad things would happen to us if we did that. I didn't think you'd do stuff like that. Bad things could happen to us now."

"I talked to them but I didn't reveal anything that they didn't already know," Oshawott mumbled. "They were going to try and capture us again and they were wondering how talking Pokémon would benefit them. I just happened to be awake at the time and I stopped them from getting any closer before they could do anything to you. I was trying to keep you all safe."

"And you fought them all on your own?" Excadrill questioned.

"No, I just talked to them…" he whispered. As soon as he said that, Oshawott wished that he had fought them after all waking everybody up in the process. Team Rocket probably would have explained everything since it was in their business to gloat; he could have looked brave and strong in battling them instead of feeling terrified as he felt now; it would surely have been an easier process than burning under Pokémon death glares.

"Well, you could have stayed silent and they might have considered themselves mistaken!" Emolga huffed. "And you still haven't said how Team Rocket could have found this out in the first place! Why on earth did you just talk to them instead of battling them if you really care about keeping us safe?"

That stung. That really stung. Oshawott was visibly shaking. "I…I…" Snivy had enough.

"If Oshawott says that Team Rocket knew about our ability to talk before he even said a single word, then I believe him," said Snivy coolly, standing next to the shocked Water-Type and staring at the equally shocked Pokémon and Trainers. "If they already knew and said as much, then why bother hiding it from them? Oshawott wouldn't give us away if he knew that they had no idea about their skill; he's not a traitor."

"We never said he was," muttered an embarrassed Pignite.

"But that is what is being implied," Snivy said with a slight hiss. "And whatever Oshawott said to them, it must have worked, hmm? We haven't been captured and if we had, we would have freed ourselves as usual. They'll come after us again but then, they always do."

"I just don't understand why Oshawott would talk to them in the first place," said Ash. Oshawott gulped. Even this neutral glance was scaring him to death. He seriously wondered whether he had done the right thing. Oshawott knew that he would not have been able to live with himself if he had put his friends in danger even unwittingly so. "Why didn't you wake us up and say that something was wrong? That's what you would normally do."

Oshawott was suddenly being bombarded with questions from all sides. What did he say to Team Rocket, what did Team Rocket say to him, how did they know about their skill if it wasn't Oshawott who had revealed it? Cilan tried calling for order but he would have got a better response from one of his beloved pans. Snivy was getting more enraged with the lot of them. Pikachu seemed to be the only one not doing anything. She was angry with him too for that very reason; he wasn't doing a single thing.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Oshawott howled making them all jump back. "I honestly don't know! Is this supposed to be my fault as well? All I want to do is keep you guys safe! I don't want to lose you! I don't want to lose any more friends! I think even Team Rocket understood that, WHY CAN'T YOU?!"

"Oshawott!" Ash yelled as with that last bitter cry, Oshawott tore himself away from the group and dashed to the safety of the nearby forest, not caring who he ran into or how lost he would manage to get himself. "Oshawott…" he said more quietly."I didn't know you felt that way…"

"Well, talk about revealing things," Iris muttered. Bianca was privately thinking that this was probably the major downside in sharing a common language with Pokémon. But hey, it wasn't as if she was having to deal with it.

Snivy left everybody else behind as she too dashed into the forest. She just hoped Oshawott hadn't gone too far ahead…

* * *

There was a Meowth Balloon slowly making its way across the sky. Someone was looking through a pair of binoculars and eagerly announced to their colleagues that their usual targets were in sight. No prizes for guessing which group it was.

" We're coming to get some Pokémon today, so we can go on holiday! "

"**~Wobbuffet!~"**

* * *

"I guess Servine was right after all," Oshawott sighed bitterly. "Maybe I am just an idiot, a good-for-nothing idiot." It was easier telling himself that than listening to it from others. Hell, it would have been better for him overall if he had just accepted that from the beginning.

He lay in the branches of an apple tree and some its delicious fruit was hanging above him, easily reachable if he knocked one with his scalchop but he was in no mood for eating; he felt as if he would never have an appetite again.

"No," he told himself. "I just did what I felt was right. I can't be blamed for that. Snivy understood that. At least Snivy stuck up for me…" She seemed to be the only Pokémon to have done that recently. As for everybody else…. Well, Oshawott could easily admit to himself that his old habit of pinching their food when they weren't looking wasn't exactly an endearing one and one that they certainly didn't like but he had stopped doing that ages ago when he realised that there was more to life than food and chasing random females. Perhaps they had quietly disapproved of his habit of chasing said random females but again, Oshawott had stopped doing that since they had never returned his affections and Oshawott had then realised his feelings for another, someone who he had been travelling with for quite some time. In any case, he didn't deserve their contempt. So much for friendship.

A droplet hit Oshawott on the nose. He looked up to see that the sky had suddenly turned black and it had begun to rain heavily. How convenient. Perhaps their search for him would be delayed, if they were bothering to search for him that is. He turned over onto his stomach and removed his scalchop, moodily scratching the tree bark with it. Part of him did hope that they were out looking for him but on the other hand, he now wanted to be very much left alone. He had felt lonely since the Snivy and Tepig he had known a long time ago had been ruthlessly captured by Team Plasma and with his team's reactions, he felt that loneliness again. He could deal with being alone. What difference would it make now?

"I thought I would find you here," said a voice behind him.

Startled, Oshawott turned himself around and found Snivy before him. He scrabbled backwards but hit the tree trunk all too soon. His scalchop had also been knocked off the branch and fallen onto another one further below. He blushed and averted his gaze. "How did you find me here?" he mumbled.

"I just know where you'll end up," she shrugged. "In case you're wondering, I left the others behind some time ago. I didn't see if they followed me but it doesn't matter to me either way. And besides, I wanted to see you alone." Oshawott's eyes widened.

"If it's about what I did and said earlier, I'm so sorry!" he gabbled. "I don't know what I was thinking! I was just doing things I didn't even know my species did! I would have tried to stop myself if I could so that I wouldn't have embarrassed you in front of everybody but I-" Snivy touched Oshawott's lips to quieten him. He suddenly realised how close she was. His heart began to pound faster.

"It's fine," she said. "I know you would have done if you could think clearly but really, I… liked it, although I'm sure the last part could have been said in a more subtle manner." Oshawott was relieved when she smiled. He suddenly felt a lot calmer. "I'm sure you could do it again sometime, in private, of course."

"That's if I can remember what I did," he laughed lightly. "All I can remember is creating rain but now I think I've just created a storm cloud…"

"This may sound like I'm just saying things that you want to hear, but I think they were just scared that something was going to happen to them there and then. They know it's not your fault." _They better know that._ "They just don't think sometimes," she sighed. "If Team Rocket has all this special equipment, they could have easily listened in on us when we were having a private conversation. They've probably done that before."

"Even so, I wish I did something earlier," Oshawott sighed. "I can't help but feel responsible for it and that if I just woke you guys up, then there wouldn't be any problems. I don't know if anyone else has felt like this but I just feel so confused at times, not knowing what to do or think in case I get judged for it."

"Well," said Snivy. "Here's what I think."

Snivy unexpectedly had her vines wrapped around Oshawott's body and pulled him towards her into a sudden kiss. Oshawott's fur stood on end as she firmly planted her lips on his. He soon found himself returning the favour and held her against his quivering body, groaning quietly as he did so. Those grassy vines were caressing his uncovered area again and to Oshawott, it simply felt amazing. Why was an Oshawott so sensitive to touch in an area normally covered by a scalchop anyway? Well, directly underneath the scalchop of an Oshawott lay their heart hence its need for protection. To let somebody touch even the shell required an extraordinary amount of trust on its own; to let somebody touch the area beneath it, where an Oshawott's heart rested… that was reserved for lovers only.

They parted for air after what seemed only like seconds but was in fact at least a couple of minutes. Oshawott gave a happy sigh. It was nothing like he had planned and the previous circumstances had not been the most favourable but somehow, that didn't matter at all.

"Was that your first kiss?" Snivy asked. Oshawott nodded, temporarily rendered mute. He brushed some water of Snivy's skin (which tingled at his soft touch) and attempted to speak.

"Umm… d-do you mind if we make it a second?" he asked timidly. "Please?" Oshawott received his answer quicker than expected as Snivy pressed herself against his lithe body again. They closed their eyes in their moment of passion. Oshawott surprised Snivy by suddenly taking the initiative and darted in with his tongue, sending a new wave of sensations course through his body. Snivy responded just as eagerly; it was what she had wanted from the Water-Type. He tasted sweet. This was even better than the first kiss. It was all getting very interesting.

Unfortunately, it couldn't last forever, as the Pokémon supposed that they would only be found at the most inopportune of moments. Both Pokémon panted for breath as they released each other and nervously giggled when they realised that each were still connected by a trail of saliva which was quickly wiped off.

"Snivy," said Oshawott looking directly at her. "I don't know how long I've been trying to say this but… I love you."

"And I don't know how long I've been waiting for you to say that," she smiled. "I love you too, Oshy."

No kisses this time, they instead drew each other into a hug, keeping each other warm as rain continued to pelt it down. Certainly, Oshawott had plenty of body heat to share now that his face had gone hot and crimson with embarrassment and indeed, jubilation. Who cared what the others thought of him? This was more important to him now.

"Snivy," he whispered as he held her tightly. "Thank you… for earlier. It means a lot to me considering what the others were saying. And I promise that I will protect you to the best of my abilities and that you have my heart forever."

"As do I," Snivy whispered back. Pokémon like Snivy and Oshawott generally mated for life; therefore, it was important to make sure that each Pokémon was fully committed to each other. Not that this was any worry for Snivy and Oshawott. Being team-mates had already forged for them great bonds of friendship that had now suddenly moved onto the next level. Nothing could separate them now.

"I suppose we better go back," said Oshawott somewhat nervously. "If they don't find us here, then at least they'll find us back at the camp. As long as everything's simmered down…"

"I'm sure it has," said Snivy as the pair leapt down from the tree. She also retrieved Oshawott's scalchop for him which until recently, under no circumstances would it have been touched by another being other than Oshawott. He grinned as he placed his beloved shell back in its rightful place.

Oshawott and Snivy strode down the forest path together, unheeding of the rain or any cries from the forest Pokémon. They didn't hear any their friends calling out for him but then, this was a large place; one could easily get lost. However, Snivy remembered the paths that she had took in finding Oshawott and easily directed them back to camp.

There was a spot of trouble to be had when they finally arrived back. Oshawott could not help but think that this was a fitting punishment for them but that thought passed quickly as he figured that their friends needed their assistance, never mind the earlier crisis. Oshawott and Snivy briefly grinned at each other before launching themselves into the fray.

* * *

**A slow but significant chapter I think. And a hard one to write too! But I'm pleased with how it has turned out. I think this chapter has been good practice for one I plan to write for my other Pokémon story though that will be more... intense, knowing what I mean. :D **

**Thanks in advance for your reviews as always! Keep reading!**


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